“Turkey Underground City of Kaymakli, and Saratlı Yeraltı Şehri”

• September 21, 2020
• By Daryl
• 0 Comment

Driving from Istanbul was very impressive, the roads was organized and maps worked well. The further we drove out of Istanbul, the more fruit stands stood along the road. Persian  melons and squash was about all that was for sale. Most of the fields were plowed up and ready for planting. The rains will come soon. Many fields still had Persian melons all over them with dried up vines in between. 

We passed this area we could see from far away, it looked like a huge white, dried up lake. It turns out to be the second largest, highest salient concentration lake in Turkey called Lake Tuz. At one restaurant hundreds of people were out walking on the salt and from far away, they looked like wooden pier piling all in one area. But they were moving, and it turns out to be people dressed in dark clothing milling around the white nutrient. The fruit stands started having bags of salt for sale, after that. It was about fifty miles of lake, at the end some light blue water could be seen in the middle of Lake Tuz. 

We drove into the underground city area on paved smooth roads past many plows and farming equipment next to stone homes. There was slanted pattern shape stone walls that look older than time. We are directed to a one block area in a circular zig zag route. We found the underground city as our eyes adust to history reconciled  and reconstructed in our minds. We go in different directions looking for signs of living underground. Chickens, turkeys and geese wander the grounds. 

I see two men up on their balcony,”Selam,” do you speak English, yes” and one comes down. I said “Underground city” and I point down and under. He points me to his underground rooms and allows me to enter. A small cave, underground group of dark rooms with doors and very small windows. Another room has more items being stored, maybe a cooking area. Outside he directs me to other underground labyrinths in the area. I pulled out some Turkish lira to pay him for his time, but  he refuses it. 

All the other doors are locked and holes appear under large boulders like a rabbit or squirrel holes but big enough for someone to squeeze through. Collapsed areas of past homes or holes are all over the area. Some of the stone structures, just above the ground, with three  foot tall doorways all locked with tiny windows with bars or pieces of window frames. Others had full size doors but a tiny window above the door. 

I see Bunny yelling for me as a massive dog lurches to chains length with bunny doing a backwards jump. Bunny disappears in the distance as faint cry’s soften. Searching for her leads to more potential dwellings of the past. I see a dusty Bunny in the distance, she took the long way around the vicious dog.

We got back in the car and drove  the neighborhood as we know what to look for. We drove  on into the sunset. The canyons looked like Mesas but had carved caves in the sides. Some had old crooked doors hanging on.  

Driving on we see many refugee camps with Syrians standing around, waiting for their lives to begin again. 

Another underground city was called Kaymakli Yeraltı Şehri, this one is amazing. A laberith of multiple family caves. Some of these held thousands of people and their livestock. The walkways are narrow so oncoming walkers may have to step into someone else’s area. It was cool and an air flow was built in. Multiple levels with ramps and stairs. There were store rooms for grain and grinding wheels. 

There was huge round disk used to close off passages on each level. We saw smaller ones to close off caves used for crypts,  in Israel. The walls were only about five inches thick between rooms. Amazing was the challenge to dig the areas out.  

The underground cities was secret hiding places to protect them from the marauding bands of ottoman warriors traveling through. The hungry troops could not figure out what happened on whole cities of people. 

The air was very fresh and cool in the caves, but thousands of people and animals are not filling the voids now. We could not see bathrooms or how water was handled. But this is only temporary housing and pottery pots  of water and waste took care of that problem. 

We walked out with our minds in awe. We then saw the sun was setting and we started looking for a hotel and dinner. We found a hotel but I only found snacks for dinner. Because of COVID, no food was available in the hotel.