Kaymakli description and photos - Turkey: Cappadocia (Topic)

Kaymakli description and photos - Turkey: Cappadocia. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Kaymakli.

Photo and description

The underground city of Kaymakli lies 9 kilometers north of Derinkuyu. Kaymakli is one of the largest underground cities in the Cappadocia Valley in what is now Turkey. This city is located 18 kilometers from the provincial capital, Nevsehir. In ancient times, Kaymakli was a refuge for Christians who fled there from religious persecution and the invasion of Arabs.

The city is a rather complex system, consisting of many floors, rooms and tunnels, equipped with wells with water and ventilation. Some of the rooms were used as wine cellars, warehouses where large food supplies were stored, stables, pottery, and other utility rooms. There was even a chapel here. The entire underground city is carved into soft volcanic rock - tuff, and its depth is about twenty meters.

Kaymakli consists of eight floors. The first floor was built by the Hittites. Later, already during the periods of Byzantine and Roman rule, these artificial caves were constantly increasing, and as a result, a whole underground city was formed, which has all the conditions for long-term living. If necessary, the city could simultaneously accommodate about fifteen thousand people.

Currently, only five levels of the city have been excavated here, and archaeological work is still being carried out on the lower floors. According to scientists, this is far from the limit, in addition, there is the longest tunnel leading from Derinkuyu to Kaymakli. Archaeologists do not exclude that the existence of a common underground space of these cities is possible. The location of objects here, like the `` neighbor '', almost exactly repeats the above-ground city - there are underground squares, a network of streets with small residential houses, caves, wine presses and storage rooms, smoke-black kitchens and many kilometers of ventilation shafts. Portal entrances were blocked by huge stone discs. In case of danger, people tightly closed these so-called cork doors with loopholes for shooters, in the center of which a hole was made, where a support rod was inserted to roll the disc, after which it was fixed with crossbars, and the doors were filled with stones from the inside.

The entrance to Kaymakli is located in the central square. It contains signs throughout the route to help tourists find their way through this maze of rooms and corridors. Everything was there: meeting rooms, cells, churches and cemeteries. Water supplies, wines and oils were kept in large earthenware jars.

The floors were connected to each other by means of vertical ventilation wells, at the bottom of which there were reservoirs. The underground shelters were mostly two-room "apartments". They maintained a constant temperature due to the ventilation system, which was +27 degrees Celsius.

Kaymakli has been open to tourists since 1964. It is worth noting that people who are claustrophobic from visiting Kaymakli should refrain from visiting Kaymakli because the passages there are really very narrow and the ceilings are not very high.

Even if you like to see the sights on your own, in Kaymakli it is best to use the services of guide for several reasons. Firstly, although there are direction arrows inside the dungeon, this, nevertheless, a city built with the expectation of making its inhabitants as difficult as possible to find. You are unlikely, of course, to get lost, but it is likely that you will not be able to immediately find the right path. In addition, here, as in ordinary houses, there are no stairs between floors, and one room passes into another, going down lower and lower. Tourists walking along these passages are not even always sure at what level they are at the moment. Secondly, all pointers are quite simple and they do not have any explanations about what is in front of you. If you have a person who is familiar with the history of Kaymakli next to you, you will get much more pleasure from visiting the city. The guide will always be able to tell you exactly how the antique objects and rooms that you are currently examining were used. In addition, despite the fact

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Topic: Kaymakli description and photos - Turkey: Cappadocia.