Turkey Travel: Kaymakli Underground City, Cappadocia
Have you ever heard about people living in an underground city? Perhaps in the storybook? But it was actually real. Kaymakli is a proof that underground city does exist.
The entrance to the underground city. You can see that there are two arrows painted on the top of the cave. Those arrows serve as a direction so that tourists will not bump and stuck in traffic inside the underground city.
The underground city was used by the Christian inhabitants to protect themselves from the oppression of the Mongolians in the 14th century.
The Christians continued to inhabit the cities when Turkey fell into Ottoman empire to avoid persecution at times.
The underground city is surprisingly cool. Cool enough for people in those days to store their wines.
This is how the winery looks like. A natural refrigerator for the wine bottles I suppose.
The city was finally abandoned when the Christian inhabitants were expelled to Greece. All tunnels still last until this day even though only a certain section is opened for tourists.