Dear all,
Just finished my crazy but wonderful trip in Turkey, and very eager to share one of my super special experience in Cappadocia.
I accidently (sort of planned) visited a ancient underground city, called "Derinkuyu", and I felt so much like walking in a real dwarf fortress there!!
First of all, here is the almighty wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_Underground_CityThe intial underground city could date back in late Hittite period around 8 B.C. (Imaging digging up such a huge tunnel system in Bronze era!!) Later was used through many different period by different group of people, mostly as a refuge city for local population against Barbarians, Romans, Persians, and last Seljuks Turks. Most notable period was dwelled by Christian refuges, who have left numerious secret churches and wall painting throughout Cappadocia during Roman and Byzantine periods. If you guys will be interested, here is more wikiiii!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CappadociaThe tunnel and underground cities were abandoned soon after Turkish occupation around 10 A.D., and was found again by accident in early 20th Century.
Enough of my history mumbling, let me tell you my experience there!!
After left my tour bus, all I saw was a normal small town ahead of us. Suddenly, after passing through the parking area, I found the cave entrance by the tollbooth. (Also a well disguised main ventilation shaft by the side). We quickly started to walk down through the first tunnel. Not a long walk, and sometimes you have to bent down a bit like if you are a dwarf. On the side during my walk, I saw more tunnels. According to my tourguide, most of these tunnels lead back to the surface houses.
So here is the deal, when invader comes, people live in the surface will open the hidden patch door within their house which led to these tunnels. Then they will holed up in the underground city until their enemies moved away. If the enemies found the entrance and entered the tunnels, the local people would get even deeper in the underground city and fought them in the tunnels or behind a sealed stone door with defence I will mention later. Exactly like what we did in our dwarf fortress against goblins and such.
Some of these tunnels are still functional (with some collapsed already after all these years of course), so you can still run up surface into some random local residence by accident. Still, I do not encourage you to do so, because once you get lost in one of these tunnels, without light and such, you know what is going to happen, LOL!!
So far the underground cities has counted for 13 floors beneath the ground (still counting). As a tourist you can only visit the major area in the center down to 8th level, through the main tunnel of course.
Besides all the tunnels leading to various directions, I started to see some storage rooms, workshops, winery, and plus more ventilation shafts of different shape. Later, I reached a rather big room which functions as kind of center junction room to all the tunnels around. Here my tour guide told us how people communcated in the underground city. They shouted through the ventilation shafts, or gently knocked walls and floors to get others' attention underneath them. Right next to me in the junction room was a huge ventilation shaft, which led up to the entrance area (yes, the one I saw earlier by the tollbooth). So, this is not only the main ventilation, also services as kind of goods tranfering shaft.
Now, after passing the junction room it was getting more interesting. We walked through a small passage further down (while the other tunnels leading up). After a quick turning point, I saw a small room which serviced as a trap room. (ya, shooting deadly stuff) After another turning and even further down the way, the tour guide told us to look back. Then you see this!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Puerta_derinkuyu.jpgA stone door just came out of nowhere!! If those refuges sealed the door from inside, it will be very difficult to see from outside. (yes, the picture looks to bright, so you have to image youself walking in the tunnels under dim light). None of us will notice this door without hearing our tourguide's reminder. After seeing this door, everybody was screaming with excitement like "Wow, just like walking in an Indiana Jones movies!!". At that moments I was so wanted to cry out loud: "You elf loving amateurs!! THIS IS DWARF FORTRESS!!".
You can spot a hole on the stone door, which functioned as a weapon shoot out point. Once got sieged from outside, refuges would make a stand here, shooting spears or arrows through this hole to their enemies. After keep walking down the long tunnels (with this stone door built in the middle), passing another trap area, we ventured into a much larger room, which serviced as commanding center. Again, I saw the main ventalition shaft on the side, which lead up to the junction room right above us. Amazing!!
Not far away, you see a even bigger room, in cross shape. So yes, this is the church area. On the side, I saw another long tunnels leading to the temporay grave yard. Here by the church was the 8th level already. We were not allowed to go further down. I could see many rooms like living quarters and such, and of course more tunnels ahead. According to our tour guide, some tunnels can reach serveral KMs away, so very very impressive!!
It was like 30 mins already in the cave, and I started to feel the tension in the dense air. Excitement!! However, the bad thing with a tour was you have to follow the time schdule. So we quickly walked back the same way up (yes, all the tourists could only walk in and out throught the same tunnels, another reason why we cannot stayed for long). Walking down was easy, but walking up in kind of crawling stance is very very tiresome!! After junction room, we took another tunnel up. After seeing more tunnels and storage rooms, we finally walked into serveral fine rooms. These, according to our tourguide, was made for VIPs of the undergound cities. I could see clear shape here with living room, bedroom, and even a Jacuzzi (LOL, I guessed by the shape).
After walking a bit more up, we stopped at a huge room designed for live stocks like cow, sheeps, and even horses. On the side of wall, I saw a special trench which used for animal feeding. From the side, another big ventalition shaft, and I could see the sun light coming in already. So, yes, this was the end of my trip in the amazing undergound cities!!
So, here I am, sharing this unique experience with my fellow Urists!! I believe if you were there like me, you will feel exactly the same excitement (like seeing your fortress alive, or having new ideas for your fortress)!! If any of you will ever travel to Turkey, make plans for Cappadocia (espeicall the undergound city!!) There are actually a lot of things to do over there, such as hot ballons, special volcano landscape, scenes of Star Wars (where they shot Tatooine I believe), and etc. Of course, if Toady will ever need some holidays (or say, new inspiration), maybe it is a good reason for him to book a trip to Turkey!! LOL!!
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Topic: A very Dwarfy experience in my trip in Cappadocia Turkey!! (Read 2135 times)