70,000 people could live in "City of Caves" underground in Matiate, Türkiye (Turkey)
Troglodyte Churches and Monasteries
Note: UN agrees to change Turkey’s official name to ‘Türkiye’1
Don’t know if there are libraries in this underground city, but only 3% has been excavated.
A newly discovered underground city, called Matiate (‘city of caves’), was discovered accidentally during the cleaning and conservation of historical streets and houses in Midyat, Türkiye (Turkey).2 Workers were cleaning a cave in 2020 when they discovered a passage. Excavation work then revealed a multitude of rooms and other tunnels leading from it, as well artifacts and wall murals. Archaeologists in Türkiye (Turkey) have discovered a massive underground city, which they believe may be the largest in the world. They have only excavated 3% of it so far but are unearthing multitudes of rooms, tunnels, hidden passages and artifacts on a daily basis.
"Matiate has been used uninterruptedly for 1,900 years. It was first built as a hiding place or escape area. As it is known, Christianity was not an official religion in the second century. Families and groups who accepted Christianity generally took shelter in underground cities to escape the persecution of Rome or formed an underground city. Possibly, the underground city of Midyat was one of the living spaces built for this purpose. It is an area where we estimate that at least 60-70,000 people lived underground."3
Capadoccia: UNESCO. World Heritage
Geographically located in the center of Türkiye (Turkey), Capadoccia is a mountain area that was created from a series of volcanic eruptions.4 Capadoccia is famous for its fairy chimneys, sort of strange shaped rocks (tuff rocks) sculpted by the erosion work. 5
In a spectacular landscape, entirely sculpted by erosion, the Göreme valley and its surroundings contain rock-hewn sanctuaries that provide unique evidence of Byzantine art in the post-Iconoclastic period. Dwellings, troglodyte villages and underground towns – the remains of a traditional human habitat dating back to the 4th century – can also be seen there.6
Though interesting from a geological and ethnological point of view, the incomparable beauty of the decor of the Christian sanctuaries makes Cappadocia one of the leading examples of the post-iconoclastic Byzantine art period.
The first signs of monastic activity in Cappadocia date back to the 4th century at when small anchorite communities began inhabiting cells hewn in the rock. In later periods, in order to resist Arab invasions, they began banding together into troglodyte villages or subterranean towns such as Kaymakli or Derinkuyu which served as places of refuge.7
UN agrees to change Turkey’s official name to ‘Türkiye’ Aljazeera (June 2, 2022).
Metcalfe, Tom (2022) Underground city unearthed in Turkey may have been refuge for early Christians. Live Science.
Excavations reveal huge underground city in Turkey’s Mardin. Daily Sabbah (April, 19, 2022).
Çiner, Attila, and Erkan Aydar. “A Fascinating Gift from Volcanoes: The Fairy Chimneys and Underground Cities of Cappadocia.” In Landscapes and Landforms of Turkey, 535–49. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019.
Yıldız, P. “Analysis Of The ‘Cappadocian Cave House’ In Turkey As The Historical Aspect Of The Usage Of Nature As A Basis Of Design.” WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment 87 (2006).
Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia. UNESCO. World Heritage Convention, 1985.
Ibid.
This is unbelievable! 70,000 people?!
Where did they get their food and water? And how did they get rid of waste? This discovery raises a lot of questions. It seems as though inhabitants must have spent a lot of time outside of the underground housing.