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,
like to thank the organization for the Gamirasu Cave Hotel Cappadocia and Turkey.
If you want to get to know the world. Capadoccia need to see before.
I have not seen such a perfect holiday in my life. Cappadocia is excellent.
I saw myself in wonderland underground cities of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli.
i like the adventure to underground city of kaymakli. go down uinder about 10-20meters underground. very tides and very narrow. a little bit dark and lack of oksigen. with visiting this place which they believe from around more 1000years ago you can image how is the people lives on that time. what an amazing place indeed!!!
The experience is unique. I enjoyed this.It was nice going down , some metres underground and looking at the old city, where thousands found refuge during the old times.
The widest underground city in Cappadocia. Make sure you don't suffer from claustrophobia before venturing beyond the 2nd level.
This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Cappadocia. How and why they built these cities is still, as far as I am concerned, not clear, however they did and they are well worth a visit. Although one is underground it is not claustrophobic, even in the sometimes narrow tunnels. The route is well lit and clearly…
We went to Kaymakli and we vist the underground city. It's well maintained. I highly recommend to take a guide tour (I'm sure all of them are good), otherwise you will not get much information. Our guide was Mr. Sakir Aktas (sakir41@hotmail.com). He was very helpful and knows a lot about the history and the area (I read it myself,…
We did not want a guide at the beginning, but ended up taking one. Really worth it. We really understood many things about these underground cities. 8 stories down… amazing… worth visiting… if you are not affraid of walking through tiny tunnels underground.
It's about 20 km from Goreme and not so hard to get there. If you are in Cappadocia don't miss this place. It's really interesting place. We had no guide and I think we miss some information because of There is no information available inside of the place.
This is an inspiring place to visit for christians as the underground cities of Cappadocia were used last by the early christians when they were persecuted.
So, it really shades a new light on things if you stay and think a bit about what they went through for their belief and what are we doing with the freedom to be…
I was proud of my past. , we come to see that they.in the rock houses, kitchen, warehouse, winery, water well, Kayakapı, tunnels, everything was original.