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Kaymakli Underground City, Cappadocia

Home → Cappadocia, Turkey → Kaymakli Underground City, Cappadocia

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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.

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Kaymakli Underground City, Cappadocia, 100% based on 4818 ratings
89 Reviews
  1. nick_ng
    11:35 pm on May 18, 2012

    This is one of the underground cities in the area. Go early to avoid the crowd so that it's easier to move in the tight, narrow, low spaces. This reminds me of the Củ Chi tunnels in Vietnam.

    Reply
  2. Nicole N
    6:58 pm on July 23, 2012

    Try to visit with a good guide, it will be much more interesting. My husband is 6'7" and was able to get through the caves without difficulty.

    Reply
  3. power2change
    7:48 pm on August 15, 2012

    We visited close to lunch time & found the tunnels a little busy but not overwhelmingly so. We didn't have our own guide but heard criticism that their commentary was not particularly informative. I found this underground city fascinating but wish I had taken to time to read more about their history before visiting.

    Reply
  4. Stringbean57
    8:57 pm on November 5, 2012

    Nice experience, not to be missed. Very cool and comfortable on a hot summer day. Typically I never get a guide but a guide is a must here! You would miss sooo much without a guide.
    A guided tour takes about 45-60 minutes. Somehow we lucked out and visited when there were no tour buses present. Our tour guide spoke…

    Reply
  5. Arbajram
    12:14 am on December 11, 2012

    Deepest, and I would say broader than Kaymakli, nice example of undergroudn city. It's origins date from Hetits (2000 BC)

    Reply
  6. lihte
    3:22 pm on February 23, 2013

    We drove to Derinkuyu from Goreme, almost 30km but it was worth the trip. The city is amazing and it's very deep. Make sure you get thick clothes as it gets colder as you go down. You don't need a guide because the coridors are well signaled.

    Reply
  7. ccurtis18
    7:30 pm on March 7, 2013

    Each of us walked away from the with a deeper understanding of the of the people and the skills in creating this underground…

    Reply
  8. Naureen Y
    9:25 am on April 16, 2013

    Its a UNESCO World Heritage Sight and worth to visit.Claustrophobic persons may have unpleasant experience.Obese people and very tall people have problems as tunnels are quite narrow n long to travel.

    Reply
  9. Brian_NewYork
    10:47 am on July 19, 2013

    The rooms are tall enough and the experience is fascinating but there are so many tour groups it impacts the experience. Between rooms there are tunnels where you bend and crouch down to walk.

    Reply
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The big tip is to try and go completely private. Many of the large tour companies offer private tour and they are going to charge a significant amount of money for the tour guide. However, many locations offer self-guided tours and therefore you have the ability to supply your own tour guide. Easily Book your guided private Ephesus tours, to see all the treasures of Ephesus Turkey. It's often said that Turkey has more ancient cities and classical ruins than does Greece. Well, it's true, and the Aegean coast holds a great number of sites, including Ephesus, the grandest and best-preserved of them all.

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