Ancient underground villages in the Cappadocia region of Nouşehir, central Turkey, offer a unique historical experience that informs visitors about the relics of ancient life in those regions. Visitors may experience the historical structures, stunning natural settings, go on balloon tours, go on quad bike adventures, go on walking tours, and even travel underground to discover the ruins of ancient civilizations in Cappadocia.
The Purpose
The underground towns were first carved out of the soft tuff rocks of the area between 3000 and 500 BC, and were later enlarged by the Hittites, the Romans, and the Byzantines until they reached their present size.
These cities were built in a manner appropriate to the needs and circumstances of housing required for a community to be able to live in them temporarily, as there are rooms, warehouses, water basements, a church, and other rooms connected to one another by short corridors.
Turkish authorities have lighted six of the 20 cities that have been discovered nearby so that visitors can travel around 100 metres beneath.
♦ 3 Days Turkey Tour – Cappadocia Konya Tour
A Tourist Attraction
Between January and October of this year, there were 459,456 tourists to the cities of “Kaymakli,” “Drin Koyu,” “Ozkonak,” “9,172,” and “Tatlarin.” There were also 298,117 visits to the city of “Kaymakli,” 194,000 visitors to the city of “Ozkonak,” and 4,846 guests to the city of “Tatlarin.”
According to figures from the Nuşehir municipality, “Qaya Shahr,” which opened to tourists in 2020, received 87,322 visits between January and October, bringing the total number of local and foreign visitors to underground settlements to 152,954.
Ozay Onur, the head of the Chamber of Tourist Guides in Nuşehir, emphasised that Cappadocia is rich in tourism and that the region’s underground cities are among its most well-liked tourist attractions. He added that Cappadocia has both sorts of riches and that other parts of the world have wealth both above and below the surface. He added,
“In Cappadocia, you wander underground, explore the surface, and ascend to the sky, as it is the only place in the world where the three are present together, as we see that underground cities have been used since the Hittite era, and we do not know how many cities are underground in the region because we have not discovered them all yet.”