Artemis

Located in Cappadocia, Turkey, Derinkuyu (Greek: Malakopí) is notable for its large multi-level underground city, which is a major tourist attraction. This incredible archaeological discovery was stumbled upon by pure chance in 1963 by a local inhabitant while renovating his house. The historical region of Cappadocia, where Derinkuyu is situated, contains several historical underground cities, carved out of a unique geological formation.

The oldest written source about underground structures is the writings of the Greek hisorian Xenophon (430 - 354 BC). In his Anabasis he writes that the people living in Anatolia had excavated their houses underground, living well in accommodations large enough for the family, domestic animals, and supplies of stored food.

From Byzantine times (4th century CE) through 1923 Derinkuyu was known by its Cappadocian Greek inhabitants as Malakopea (Greek: Μαλακοπέα). The underground city was greatly expanded in the middle Byzantine period to serve as a refuge from the raids of the Umayyad Arab and Abbasid armies, during the Arab–Byzantine wars (780-1180). The city contained food stores, kitchens, stalls, churches, wine and oil presses, ventilation shafts, wells, and a religious school. The Derinkuyu underground city has at least eight levels and depth of 85 m and could have sheltered thousands of people. The city continued to be used as protection from the Mongolian incursions of Timur in the 14th century. After the region fell to the Ottomans the cities were used as refuges. As late as the 20th century the town's inhabitants, called Cappadocian Greeks, were still using the underground chambers to escape periodic waves of Ottoman persecution.