I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the entire month of April, by posting an interesting topic for each letter of the alphabet. This excludes Sneak Peek Sundays. Follow this link to nearly 2000 other bloggers and authors.
The A to Z Challenge – participating blogs
Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter U for Underground City.
While researching Turkey for my huge unfinished series affectionately referred to as my magnum opus (See details in previous posts), I came upon Cappadocia. Turkey stirs my imagination for various reasons, but none so much as the underground cities of Cappadocia. Reminiscent of the tunnels and chambers found in an anthill, the cities were dug from the soft volcanic rock in the 8th–7th centuries B.C.E. It’s estimated there are more than 200 subterranean cities scattered across the land, some as deep as 280 feet below ground with ventilation chimneys and wells tapped into underground water placed at various levels throughout. Some cities are connected by tunnels.
Warm in winter and cool in summer, every living space imaginable for man and beast in the city was carved out of the rock – kitchens, wine cellars, store rooms for grain and cribs for hay, meeting rooms, and toilets. All the cities had locking stones which could be opened and closed only from inside against outside threats. The largest city of Derinkuyu was massive enough to shelter 20,000 people and their livestock. As far as Turkish tourism goes, Derinkuyu currently has 8 levels open to the public with as many as 12 more levels yet to be excavated. And there may be more than that. I’d love to see it.
The following video from the History Channel shows the tunnel system.
Ignore the parts about extraterrestrials. 😉
I’ll save that for the next A to Z Challenge!
Next, the letter V!
I’ve had so much fun discussing my historical posts in the A to Z Challenge. To keep conversations going, I’ve just launched a new blog — a Salon Blog called Another Stone Unturned Pressed for time now that my edits are in progress, I’ve put my Gobekli Tepe post there to reanimate the discussion. Let’s talk about it. What have you found on the web? What stone might still be unturned for interested learners? What can you share? I’d love to see! Read the details and let’s start the ball rolling. http://anotherstoneunturned.blogspot.com/
Rose Anderson ~ Love Waits in Unexpected Places
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