A man doing renovations on his home stumbled across a hidden underground ancient city in one of the most amazing finds of the 20th century. Most of us renovate our homes by removing a wall or putting a new carpet down, and while there are often some hurdles and the odd stressful moment, it usually ends up quite uneventful. But in 1963 a homeowner in the Nevsehir province near the Turkish city of Cappadocia was doing some work on his house and discovered a secret room in his basement after tearing down a wall, per <a href="https://historydaily.org/1963-this-man-knocked-down-a-wall-of-his-home-and-revealed-an-ancient-underground-city/9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">History Daily</a>. Unbeknown to him at the time, he had just uncovered the lost underground city of Derinkuyu - quite different from the old Christmas decorations the rest of us usually find. <img class="size-full wp-image-1263186534" src="https://img.vt.co/2022/12/E1G5RR-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" />[[imagecaption|| Derinkuyu was re-discovered in 1963. Credit: melih turhanlar / Alamy]] Per the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220810-derinkuyu-turkeys-underground-city-of-20000-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>, while decorating, the man would keep losing his chickens down a crevis, and out of frustration he went to see where his poultry was disappearing off to - turns out they were going deep underground. Derinkuyu - known in ancient times as Elengubu - burrows more than 85 meters (280 feet) below the surface, and has 18 levels of tunnels, making it the largest excavated underground city in the world. It was used for thousands of years, constantly changing hands depending on who ruled the land. The Persians, Phrygians, and the Christians of the Byzantine era all claimed charge at one point or another, with the oldest written record of the city dating back to 370BCE by Xenophon of Athens. It was abandoned in the 1920s by the Cappadocian Greeks after they were defeated in the Greco-Turkish war as they fled for the Greek mainland. <img class="size-full wp-image-1263186536" src="https://img.vt.co/2022/12/D2J5P1-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1700" />[[imagecaption|| Derinkuyu is a fully functional underground city. Credit: Ayhan Altun / Alamy]] The excavation revealed many underground dwellings as well as cattle stables, schools, wineries, chapels, and food storage. In 1985 the underground city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is believed that the underground dwellings would be used to offer sanctuary to inhabitants of the land when they came under fire from enemy invaders. Per History Daily, archeologists discovered over 100 secret entrances much like the one unearthed by the renovation works, all hidden in plain sight. Underground tours are now offered at Derinkuyu so you can see the marvel of a fully functioning ancient underground city for yourself. <img class="size-full wp-image-1263186537" src="https://img.vt.co/2022/12/2BBCE56-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" />[[imagecaption|| There are hundreds of hidden entrances to the ancient city. Credit: Marina Pissarova / Alamy]] Stories similar to this often come out of Edinburgh, with renovation works often revealing entrances to the famous Edinburgh Vaults, which is a city under the streets of the current city. This isn't permission to go knocking down your walls to look for ancient cities, however! <h6>Featured image credit: MehmetO / Alamy</h6>

Story of man who discovered an underground ancient city while renovating his home

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