Kaymaklı Underground City is contained within the citadel of Kaymaklı in the Cappadocia Turkey. First opened to tourists in 1964, the village is about 19 km from Nevşehir, on the Nevşehir-Niğde road. The ancient name was Enegup. The houses in the village are constructed around the nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The tunnels are still used today as storage areas, stables, and cellars. The underground city at Kaymaklı differs from Derinkuyu Underground City in terms of its structure and layout. The tunnels are lower, narrower, and more steeply inclined. Of the four floors open to tourists, each space is organized around ventilation shafts. This makes the design of each room or open space dependent on the availability of ventilation.
A stable is located on the first floor. The small size of the stable could indicate that other stables exist in the sections not yet opened. To the left of the stable is a passage with a millstone door. The door leads into a church. To the right of the stables are rooms, possibly living spaces.
Located on the second floor is a church with a nave and two apses. Located in front of the apses is a baptismal font, and on the sides along the walls are seating platforms. Names of people contained in graves here coincide with those located next to the church, which supports the idea that these graves belonged to religious people. The church level also contains some living spaces.
The third floor contains the most important areas of the underground compound: storage places, wine or oil presses, and kitchens. The level also contains a remarkable block of andesite with relief textures. Recently it was shown that this stone was used as a pot to melt copper. The stone was hewn from an andesite layer within the complex. In order for it to be used in metallurgy, fifty-seven holes were carved into the stone. The technique was to put copper ore into each of the holes (about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in diameter) and then to hammer the ore into place. The copper was probably mined between Aksaray and Nevsehir. This mine was also used by Asilikhoyuk, the oldest settlement within the Cappadocia Region.
The high number of storage rooms and areas for earthenware jars on the fourth floor indicates some economic stability. Kaymaklı is one of the largest underground settlements in Cappadocia the region. The large area reserved for storage in such a limited area appears to indicate the need to support a large population underground. Currently only a fraction of the complex is open to the public.
Kaymaklı underground city ( Turkish: Kaymakli yeraltı şehri ). Admission TL15; 8am-5pm, last admission 4.30pm) features a maze of tunnels and rooms carved eight levels deep into the earth (only four are open). As this is the most convenient and popular of the underground cities, you should get here early in July and August to beat the tour groups, or from about 12.30pm to 1.30 pm when they break for lunch.
Kaymakli Underground City, Cappadocia,
Amazing! Advisable to be with tour guide that you will learn more and understand each narrow tunnel and passage.. Be careful when you bring along older people… my mom have difficulty in breathing after she went out of the tunnel and I missed to buy some souvenirs ! Incredible fascinating experience with parent and my daughter, that’s what I can…
Visit this museum to understand how the Hittites lived over 3000 years ago. Many level caves including a church, a winery, a grainery and living quarters. Fascinating but be careful if you don't have a guide. Follow the arrows so you don't get lost and be wary of the deep holes.
I'm amazed at the cleverness of people when they are pushed into a corner. These Underground Cities were built by villagers to hide from armies.
You have to get your imagination hard at work to "see" the city.
It was so much fun exploring the underground city! We visited during an offpeak season so there were few tourists. But we can imagine if the place is crowded with tourists, it would be difficult even to walk around the underground city.
The kids really had so much fun!
Stopped by here and toured the site….pretty cool to see. Watch the low ceilings!
There are no decorations or setups to give you a good mock up on how people lived in these dwellings, so all the rooms look alike. No need to visit more than one city as they are all the same.
There are 36 underground cities in Cappadocia and the widest one is Kaymakli underground city, while the deepest is the Derinkuyu Underground City.
Kaymakli underground city is built under the hill known as the Citadel of Kaymakli .Ancient name was Enegup. Kaymakli people were built their homes around the underground city tunnels for security reason.
Kaymakli Underground City an exceptional experience going through the living quarters of an ancient Hittite settlement. Not for the faint of heart as there is the odd tight squeeze and you ultimately descend about 30 meters below the surface covèring 5 levels of living space.
Superb and unmissable! First instinct was to think of damp smells, bats and insects!
Amazingly clean and excellent preservation of this underground site which goes down several floors, but only a sampler of floors is permitted! NO Insects and lots of foto-op cave carve outs!!
Really enjoyed the place, learned a lot. We hired a guide, lovely Mr Mustafa. He said he was one of the first guides there, and where it's true or not he is highly recommended. Sort of old fashioned gentleman, lovely manners, very good English, very knowledgable, happy to answer questions, made the whole tour fantastically interesting. Loved the whole thing!
We visited this underground complex as part of a one day tour from Goreme. It was one of the things we were most looking forward to and we were not disappointed. We had a lot of fun wondering around underground and I am just amazed that a group of people took the time and effort to build it.