Cave rooms, churches and underground cities

The outside of our room “Battal” at the Fairy Chimney Inn

Same windows viewed from inside

There are apparently around 40 underground settlements from small villages to large cities where up to 30,000 people once lived, but only a few of these have been discovered. Derinkuyu was the largest, but we visited Kaymakli which is slightly smaller than Derinkuyu with around 5 levels excavated. Built from the same volcanic tuff as the fairy chimneys these settlements are thought to date back to the Hittite times at least (1900-1200BC). Photos don’t really do these places justice but consider that the large round stone Carol and I are sitting on was rolled in to place to "close the doors" if the city came under attack.

Looking through a “window”

Sitting on the door!