Derinkuyu Underground City · Eight Levels Down

Derinkuyu in Cappadocia goes more than eighty metres into the ground, in eight levels, and could hold several thousand people and their livestock for long periods; stone wheels sealed the passages from the inside.

Ventilation shafts run from the lowest level to the surface, so the air below is not close, but it grows darker with every level, and the lighting reaches only the third.

Guides repeat one instruction: follow the arrows on the floor. They say this is a place where a person can forget which way they came down.

Historical Mysteries / Cappadocia · Türkiye / 7th century BC