Uncovering Subterranean Secrets: The Ancient Underground City of Derinkuyu

In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole explore the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu, a massive subterranean metropolis in Turkey. Accidentally discovered in the 1960s, this hidden city could house up to 20,000 people and features everything from stables to chapels. Learn how this Byzantine-era marvel was used as a refuge from invaders and natural disasters, and uncover the innovative engineering that still amazes archaeologists today. Tune in as Katy and Laura dive deep into this underground wonder and discuss what life would have been like for its ancient inhabitants.

Perfect for history enthusiasts and anyone curious about underground mysteries!

Transcript

Katy: this is the fourth cave chronicle that we've done. We talked about stinky caves. Massive unicorns a treasure that has not been found. I mean there's the bible too, but there's a

Laura: sound amazing. I would go back and listen immediately. Immediately. Giant unicorns? What episode am I on?

Katy: Forget the Bible. Nobody's found this treasure yet. Yeah. Right. And then this week, I am going to be talking about very similar to Laura's. Was it I was talking about a subterranean city that was found that was called during kuyu. Again, probably totally butchering it. I tried to look up a pronunciation, really couldn't find anything helpful.

All righty. In the 1960s in the Darren Cayo District of Turkey, again, it was same, same

Laura: Oh, oh, oh, I think this is very similar to mine.

Katy: Yeah, there was.

Laura: It's like similar [00:01:00] structures.

Katy: Yes. Yes. There was an entire subterranean city, which was discovered. The find left the whole world in revealing complex networks of tunnels, rooms, storage areas spread across multiple levels, capable of housing up to 20, 000 people.

Laura: read a thing on the internet once about this place. I don't know how it came up. Probably Facebook was just like, you interested? Because it knows I

Katy: You're like, yes, I am.

Laura: I did such a deep dive. I don't know if it was the same one, but it was probably related. And I was like, what?

Katy: Yes, there's some really

Laura: is like, like miles, right?

Like, this is like huge

Katy: yes, so the discovery of Darren Caillou began quite by accident, just like Laura's was. Yes, so a local resident, while renovating his home, stumbled upon a hidden room that led to a maze of tunnels, which I feel like is my dream at least, right?

Laura: would be, this would be, this is, this is small Lara's dream of [00:02:00] to find a secret panel in her house, or better yet, the entrance to an underground civilization.

Katy: Right? Dang. All right. Yeah, so anyway, so it was a maze of tunnels extending deep into the earth. Either that or that best horror movie

Laura: I, I

Katy: to happen.

Laura: go down alone.

Katy: No, oh heck no. But who would you call? Like, who the heck would you call as soon as you found

Laura: mean, you could call me, and I would call you, because

Katy: Laura, I found this cave, and I don't know what to do.

Laura: in alone, but come.

Katy: Right?

but we're also like little rascals, like with a big spool of string, just like.

Laura: chalking on things and some animal keeps pooping on the walls and messing us up.

Katy: Oh, God. Oh, thank goodness. It's probably best that we're not the ones discovering this stuff.

Laura: no, it would be terrifying, because it would just

Katy: It would.

Laura: there's a, what's it's called? As Above, So Below, about the French catacombs. Woo!

Katy: yeah. Oh, yeah. Gosh. And people get lost and they die down that. Yeah. Good Lord. So, archaeologists, they kept exploring these, tunnels and they [00:03:00] uncovered a sprawling underground metropolis. Again, 20, 000 people. That's a lot of people. The city is believed to have been built around the Byzantine era or around the 8th century BCE, and there's some evidence suggests it could have been even older.

So this subterranean city is a marvel of ancient engineering as are many of these old play again. What happened that we

Laura: I agree.

Katy: smart and I got dumb. And then it's , we're doing, we have to redo this stuff. We're like, hey, let's look at history and let's just do what they did back then. It's like, what, what happened?

A plague, I'm sure, or something. 

Laura: Too many burning of witches and sorcerers. That's

Katy: yeah, right, right.

Laura: the smartest people got offed.

Katy: true. all right, so the caves, they were carved into a soft volcanic region or soft rock of the region. It spans several levels with the deepest parts reaching more than well below 200 feet below the surface, and it tire it the.

Caves themselves or the hallways, tunnels, [00:04:00] whatever, spreads out to approximately four square kilometers or about one and a half square miles, which again, it doesn't sound like a lot, but whenever it's a cave and it's square miles of yeah, but also 20, 000 people in that space, that's like. New York City jammed in, or like Tokyo jammed in, you know what I

Laura: No way. There's way more than 20, 000 people in Tokyo.

Katy: But I'm saying like in, in one and a half square miles to like jam in it, you know what I mean? I don't know how they have 

Laura: people underground. 

Katy: right?

Laura: How would you not feel claustrophobic

underground with that many people? 

Katy: Well, it depends on what, what you're down Okay, is this just like, are you just living there? Are you surviving? Did you think the apocalypse happened and this is just where you're going? You know what I mean? Like, Cause if it's like, hey, death, or you can go live in this cave, I'd be like, okay, cool, cave.

Like, alright, cool, I get it. , but this ended up being the largest excavated cave underground cave that was ever found in Turkey. It includes, like I said, living quarters, [00:05:00] kitchens, stables, storage rooms, chapels, all connected by a labyrinth of narrow passageways. Ventilation shafts and wells ensure to supply fresh air and water, allowing inhabitants to survive underground for extended periods.

What makes the Derinkuyu truly fascinating is its purpose. It was used, okay, here we go. It was used by refuge, by ancient people seeking to escape invaders and harsh weather conditions. So, I mean, yeah, if who's coming, I guess Turkey, I'd have to look at who

Laura: I mean, everyone was trying, because that would have been the probably, like, Turkey and that was like a Persian. Yeah,

like, they were always trying to conquer each other.

Yeah. 

Katy: So during times of war, natural disasters, entire communities could retreat into the safety of the underground city. So it was basically like, ancient 

Laura: Bomb shelter. 

Yeah. Yeah.

You wouldn't want to live under there long, but you 

could. 

Katy: yeah, if you if you really 

need to 

Laura: I mean, I remember reading this and they were saying about how they're, with the air ventilate, like the ventilation system alone to have that many people underground would have to [00:06:00] be sophisticated.

Katy: Yeah, it would. Yeah, I

Laura: There's no motors either.

Katy: Right. So the city's defenses other than, you know, being underground, , included massive stone doors that can be rolled into place to block tunnels, ensuring safety those within and it wasn't like, okay, there's just, you know, stones at the, at the front and then nothing.

No, it was like, they had it.

Laura: Yeah, like the Titanic, like you could like, bear, barricade. You guys have to look up pictures of this place because they 

definitely do have a photo journey and

Katy: Yes. 

Laura: It is so well done,

like everything's so clean looking, like, you know, it's not like they just chiseled it out here. I 

mean, it is like perfectly finished with these excellent rolling doors and the cisterns and 

Katy: It's crazy. It is crazy. So the city was well equipped with numerous facilities to support long term habitation if needed archaeologists found evidence of communal areas, such as large halls that serve as meeting spaces, schools, and even a wine and oil press. I mean, if you're gonna be down there that long, gotta be 

[00:07:00] drinking something. There were also grave sites indicating that inhabitants were prepared for long term occupancy and the eventualities of life underground. Additionally, various artifacts were discovered, including pottery, tools, religious objects, which provided a glimpse into the daily lives of the cultural practices of its inhabitants.

The discovery of the city is definitely groundbreaking for many, many different reasons. It challenges our understanding of ancient architecture and engineering. Laura and I were saying earlier, what happened that we just, we had a period of being dumb. And then they're able to go back in there, study it and just look at the complex designs and the ability to sustain that.

Thousands of people highlight truly how advanced the level of planning and organization that was required to, 

Laura: Because they had no power tools!

Like, that's like, 

that's what I think seems is so mind blowing is the, it's not even the feat of engineering, it's the feat of engineering with no modern tools. 

Katy: Yes. Yeah. [00:08:00] But, but that's what's crazy to me. is the planning of it, you know what I mean? Like they really had to sit down and think, okay, if we have to go somewhere and we have to be safe, this is what we need to do. You know what I mean? 

Laura: we need air and water. 

And 

Katy: yeah, but then to have okay, schools to have all this other stuff.

I mean, they put a lot of thought into it.

Laura: The other thing too, that is also completely mind blowing is obviously something happened to these people and these people basically disappeared from the face of the earth and the entrance, like the last way into this community was some, through some dude's basement. Okay. But the, whoever forgotten to the sands of time, like no one knew this giant ass city was underground.

Katy: Right.

Laura: And then the guy who owned the

house probably just bought the house. You know what I mean? 

Katy: Yeah, it was like, la la la la

Laura: that never got passed down. BTW, the house you're about to buy has an underground passageway. Like, that is [00:09:00] crazy. Somebody's grandma just died without telling them.

Katy: right? That's what I was just gonna say. It was like, probably they forgot. 

Laura: It was word of mouth, word of mouth, word of mouth, and then no more. And then

nobody remembered, which is just crazy.

Katy: All right, well, Laura, for this one, like we did with the other ones, I just brought you over the image that ChatGBT did of this one, which 

was, 

Laura: Let's see.

Katy: which was good, but also, Weirdly terrifying.

Laura: Hey, it actually is pretty good, although I'm pretty sure it was just one level.

Katy: Yeah, it definitely wasn't like how it's showing where it's just, you know, drop offs of rooms and you just have to 

shimmy up the walls to

get 

there. You gotta shimmy up there. You gotta go into Ron's room before and he has to hoist you up into Betty's in, you know, like,

Laura: Don't you know they also had levitation?

Katy: yeah, to get up here.

Laura: Aye.

Katy: Anyway, so that's the agency.

Make sure you guys check us out on Patreon. We'll be [00:10:00] posting all these ridiculous pictures, on here. And then, and then some real pictures too, because there's some pretty cool stuff here that, that they found. So next week we go back to a long, another, you know, regular episode. And the week after that, we have two more Cave Chronicles, And then we'll be done with the, with the minisodes for the season.

Laura: See you

Katy: All right guys, check us out and till next time,