Archaeologists have discovered the largest underground city in the world. It is located in Turkey.
In the Midyat district, in the southeastern province of Mardin, archaeologists have discovered a cave that is just the beginning of a tunnel of many passages leading to a complex consisting of water wells, silos and places of worship – all dating from the second and third centuries AD. ., writes the newspaper Daily Sabah, BGNES reports.
“The mussel has been used continuously for 1900 years,” said Gani Tarkan, director of the museum in Mardin, who is leading the excavation. “It was first built as a hiding place or escape area.”
Since Christianity was not the official religion in the second century, families who converted to Christianity took refuge in underground cities to escape persecution by the authorities. “Probably the underground city of Midyat was one of the residential spaces built for this purpose,” he added.
Similar underground cities have been discovered throughout Turkey. Cappadocia, in eastern Anatolia, now central Turkey, contains about 200 ancient settlements carved out of the region’s soft volcanic rock in the 7th and 8th centuries. Historians believe that these caves originally provided refuge in the region from foreign invaders, and in the 14th century were used as hiding places for Christian minorities hiding from the occupying Ottoman forces.
The cities were completely abandoned only in 1923, after the end of the Greco-Turkish wars.
They were rediscovered by accident in 1963, when a man discovered a hidden room behind a wall in his home.
The most famous underground city in Cappadocia is the multi-storey complex Derinkuyu, built between 780 and 1180 AD, located about 60 meters underground. It has the capacity to house about 20,000 people, plus livestock. Wine cellars, stables, chapels and a religious school were found among the tunnels connecting Derinkuyu with other similar settlements.
However, the newly discovered city of Midyat is ahead of Derinkuyu. It can accommodate “at least 60,000 to 70,000 people,” says Tarkan.
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