Derinkuyu Underground City

Descend eight levels into an underground city that sheltered 20,000 people. Wine storage areas, wells, ventilation shafts, and churches. Christians hid here from Arab raids. The scale is mind-boggling.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Descend Into the City That Outlasted the Empire That Built It History · Price: low

   Where: Derinkuyu Underground City entrance, Derinkuyu town, Nevşehir Province. GPS: 38.3722, 34.7350. A 36-minute drive south from Göreme on the D765 highway. Arrive at 8:00 AM when the gates open — tour buses don't arrive until 10 AM and the early hour is yours alone.

   What: Before you descend, hold this in your head: the thousands of people who carved this place were hiding from Rome. They built stables, schools, wine presses, churches, and wells — all underground — because worshipping their god above ground meant death. Then in 313 AD, Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan: Christianity was legal. The Roman Empire they had been hiding from had converted. They came back up into the sunlight. But they didn't fill in the tunnels. Because 400 years later, the Arab-Byzantine wars began — and down they went again, deeper this time, for another 400 years. The city exists because of Rome. It outlasted Rome. That is what you are walking into.

   How: Buy your ticket at the entrance booth (approximately €13 / $15 per person, or use a Museum Pass Cappadocia at ~$25 for multi-site access). Before entering the main shaft, pause at the entrance plaque and read the scale: 18–20 levels total, 85 meters deep, capacity for 20,000 people and their livestock. Only 10% of this city is accessible to you. The rest is still down there.

   Backup: If the queue is long (peak season can be 1 hour), buy a skip-line ticket online before driving down from Göreme. The site is open daily: 8 AM–7 PM (April–October), 8 AM–5 PM (November–March). Last ticket sale is 4:15 PM.

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2. 2 Find the Rolling Stone Door and Count the Spear Holes History · Free

   Where: Several millstone-shaped rolling stone doors are visible along the main tourist route through the upper levels of Derinkuyu. Look for them at corridor junctions — they are set into carved recesses in the rock walls, either rolled open (as you'll find them) or displayed upright.

   What: Each door weighs between 200–500 kg. The largest are 1.5 meters tall — nearly as tall as a person. They roll only from the INSIDE. An attacker on the outside of a sealed door could push with the force of ten men and not move it. But look at the small hole in the center of each door: 10–15 centimeters across. This hole is not a handle. It has three uses: you can look through it to see who is outside. You can pass water or messages through it if communication is needed between sealed sections. And you can push a spear through it into anyone trying to force the door. There is a historical record of this working: during the campaigns of Timour Beg (Tamerlane) in the 14th century, one of his captains was sent to hunt down refugees hiding in Cappadocia's underground cities. He was killed by an arrow shot through the hole in one of these doors. The door held. The refugees survived.

   How: Stand beside a door and try to imagine rolling it across the corridor from the inside as footsteps approach from above. The weight is the point — once rolled shut, it is also a final commitment. You cannot be dragged out. But you also cannot leave quickly.

   Backup: If the most prominent door display has a crowd around it, walk slightly further on the route — additional doors appear at multiple points throughout the accessible levels.

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3. 3 Stand at the Underground Wine Press Where They Planned to Stay for Months Wine · Free

   Where: The winery area at Derinkuyu is located near the kitchen and food storage rooms on the deeper accessible levels (around Level 3 on the tourist route). Look for a carved stone basin in the floor connected by a small channel to a collection area — this is a grape-crushing basin.

   What: The crushing was done by foot, men treading grapes in this stone vat, the juice running through the carved channel into terracotta jars buried in the floor for fermentation. This is not emergency food storage. You do not build a winery for a two-day crisis. Historians cite the presence of this wine press as direct evidence that the inhabitants planned to stay underground for months — long enough to harvest grapes, process them, wait through fermentation, and drink. They brought their grape harvest down with them. They kept herds of animals in the stables above (Level 1). They ran a school on Level 2. They celebrated births, baptized children, and pressed wine — all 40 meters underground.

   How: Look at the crushing basin and the channel that connects it to the collection area. The design is identical to above-ground Roman wine presses of the same era: two sections, same mechanics, just carved from volcanic tuff instead of built from stone. The underground temperature here is 13–15°C year-round — better for wine storage than most above-ground cellars of the period. They knew exactly what they were doing.

   Backup: If the winery area is being described by a tour guide's group, wait 3–4 minutes and move through after they leave. The basin itself is always visible — you do not need to enter a side room.

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4. 4 Locate the Fake Wells That Defeated Poison Attacks Adventure · Free

   Where: As you move through the lower levels of the accessible city, look for the large vertical shaft visible through grated openings — the main ventilation shaft descends the full height of the city. Ask your guide or the information panels about the well system, and specifically about which openings on the surface were deliberately disguised.

   What: Here is a military deception that worked for centuries: the real water wells in Derinkuyu are fed by an underground river on the lowest floors. The water supply comes from BELOW the city, not from the surface. But on the surface above, there are openings that look exactly like wells. They are air shafts. Attackers besieging the city would find these openings and pour poison down them, confident they were contaminating the water supply. They were pouring poison into empty ventilation shafts. The real water, deep below, was untouched. Some of the surface openings were not connected to any water source at all — they existed purely to receive the attackers' poison and waste it harmlessly. The real well could also be sealed from below during a siege.

   How: Look at the ventilation shaft infrastructure and think about the two layers of reality: the surface world where attackers saw 'wells,' and the underground world where every surface appearance was a deliberate lie. The inhabitants of Derinkuyu were not just surviving — they were running a strategic deception operation from 85 meters below ground.

   Backup: If you cannot find a staff member or guide to explain the well system, the Wikipedia article on Derinkuyu (available offline if downloaded before the visit) details the fake-well defense clearly. Download before leaving Göreme — cell service is variable in the underground levels.

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5. 5 Toast the Ascent With the Wine They Stored Underground Wine · Price: moderate · Optional

   Where: After emerging from Derinkuyu, drive 40 km back toward Ürgüp or Göreme (36 minutes). Your destination is Turasan Winery in Ürgüp (Tevfik Fikret Caddesi, Ürgüp — GPS approximately 38.6265, 34.9098), the benchmark Cappadocia producer who has been running cave cellars carved into volcanic tuff since 1943.

   What: You have just come up from a city where people pressed wine underground 1,500 years ago in volcanic tuff cellars at 13–15°C. Turasan's storage caves are carved from the same volcanic tuff, at roughly the same temperature. Order an Emir — the white grape that grows almost exclusively in Cappadocia's volcanic soil. It tastes of citrus and kiwi and always carries something else: a mineral 'saltiness' that comes directly from the volcanic rock the vine roots are growing through. This is the same terroir that made underground wine storage the obvious choice for people who had no above-ground safety. The wine and the hiding place are the same geology.

   How: Ask for the cellar tour to see the tuff-carved storage rooms before tasting (tour is included with most tasting packages, approximately €10–20 depending on selection). When the Emir arrives, tell them you have just come from Derinkuyu — they will know exactly what you mean. Ask: 'What do the underground chambers here do for the wine that a modern stainless tank cannot?' Listen to what they say about the volcanic stone.

   Backup: If driving back to Ürgüp feels like too much after the underground descent, nearly every restaurant in Göreme and Ürgüp carries Turasan or Kocabağ Emir by the glass. Order it anywhere, close your eyes, and remember: the same geological forces that made the rock soft enough to carve a city are also in your glass.

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