Derinkuyu
Script error: No such module "For". Template:Infobox Turkey place Derinkuyu ("deep well") (Cappadocian Greek: Μαλακοπή; Latin: Malacopia) is a town in Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is the seat of Derinkuyu District.[1] Its population is 10,912 (2022).[2] The elevation is Template:Convert.[3]
Geography
Located in Cappadocia, Derinkuyu is notable for its large multi-level underground city, which is a major tourist attraction. The historical region of Cappadocia, where Derinkuyu is situated, contains several historical underground cities, carved out of a unique geological formation. They are not generally occupied. Over 200 underground cities at least two levels deep have been discovered in the area between Kayseri and Nevşehir, with around 40 of those having at least three levels. The troglodyte cities at Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are two of the best examples of underground dwellings.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
The geomorphology of the area lends itself to underground construction. The soil is generally dry, and the tuff rock typical of the area is easy to work.[4]
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 constructed to a depth of Template:Convert and could have sheltered thousands of people.[5][6]
History
Template:Stack The oldest written source about underground structures is the writings of Xenophon. In his Anabasis (circa 370 BCE), 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.[7] The first two floors of the Derinkuyu Underground City have been dated to this early period.
From Byzantine times (4th century CE) through 1923 Derinkuyu was known by its Cappadocian Greek inhabitants as Malakopea (Template:Langx).[8] 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 continued to be used as protection from the Mongolian incursions of Timur in the 14th century.[5][6] After the region fell to the Ottomans the cities were used as refuges (Greek: καταφύγια). 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.[9]
The Cambridge linguist Dawkins, who spent time in the towns from 1910-1911 while writing his book on Cappadocian Greek, wrote: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
"[T]heir use as places of refuge in time of danger is indicated by their name καταφύγια, and when the news came of the recent massacres at Adana [in 1909], a great part of the population at Axo took refuge in these underground chambers, and for some nights did not venture to sleep above ground."[10]
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When the Cappadocian Greeks were required to leave in 1923 in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the tunnels were finally abandoned.[11][12]
Images
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Staircase in the underground town of Derinkuyu, Cappadocia, Turkey
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Rolling stone door in the underground town of Derinkuyu, Cappadocia, Turkey
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Chamber in the underground town of Derinkuyu, Cappadocia, Turkey
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Large room near the final exit of the underground town of Derinkuyu, Cappadocia, Turkey
See also
- Avanos
- Churches of Göreme, Turkey
- Eskigümüş Monastery
- Ihlara Valley
- Mokissos
- Özkonak Underground City
- Zelve Monastery
References
External links
- General information on Derinkuyu, Governorship of Derinkuyu. Template:In lang
- District municipality's official website Template:In lang
- ↑ İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
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- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Xen. An. 4.5.24-7.
- ↑ Peter Mackridge, "Some Pamphlets on Dead Greek Dialects': R.M. Dawkins and Modern Greek Dialectology", 1990. p. 205. "Anyone who attempts to find the Greek villages of Cappadocia today, either on the map or on the ground, is first faced by the problem that their names have been obliterated, a chauvinistic practice not only prevalent in modern Turkey, but practiced in Greece as well. Visitors to the so-called 'underground cities' at Kaymakli and Derinkuyu have difficulty in ascertaining that until 1923 they were called Anaku and Malakopi respectively (the latter being the Μαλακοπαία of Theophanes. Once located, however, these villages bear obvious traces of their Greek Christian past in the shape of sizable churches (some of which have been converted into mosques and are therefore well preserved, but with their frescoes covered with whitewash), and a number of rather elegant houses, whose Greekness is betrayed only by the initials and dates (usually about ten years before the 1923 exchange of populations."
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