An underground city in Turkey that once housed 20,000 people.

[ravells]

This is just beyond coolness. There is a section map of the city too.

And they said that Khazad Dum couldn't work! LOL!

Derinkuyu - Turkey's Underground City That Once Housed 20,000 People | When On Earth - Places to See, Things to Do, Gear to GetWhen On Earth ? Places to See, Things to Do, Gear to Get


and here is an underground city in Libya

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9600DQ20130701

[Bogie]

Very cool, great pics!

[Beoner]

Very interesting article, the pics show how amazing it must be.

Thanks for sharing this,

[Larb]

I always liked the doors in those cappadocian cities. Big rolling wheel-like stones. Very fantasy-esque.

[Galendae]

To me, the obvious question is, why? What would lead so many people to seek shelter below ground? Ancient Drones? Seriously though.....Makes you wonder.

[foremost]

To me, the obvious question is, why? What would lead so many people to seek shelter below ground? Ancient Drones? Seriously though.....Makes you wonder.

According to the article: the people chose to dig down
to save themselves from invasions and war. The city could be
completely closed from the inside with large stone doors and
even each floor could be closed off separately. It was also
methodically designed like a maze so to make navigating the
city difficult for unfamiliar intruders.

That's about the only reason I could think of. Apart from that,
it seems pretty impractical

[ravells]

Living underground buffers temperatures - in climates where there are extremes of hot and cold (don't know if this place was one of them) it makes a lot of sense. The only big downside I can think of is the lack of light (so lots of resources going into lighting fuel) the effort it takes to dig out the city and possible flooding...oh, and the grues!

[Wingshaw]

Digging down has some real benefits:
--protection from hostile people (and maybe animals?),
--shelter from harsh weather (heat and cold, but also hurricanes, blizzards etc),
--plenty of room for expansion,
--cost (question: is it cheaper/easier to excavate a room than it is to build one, considering you save on building materials?)
--economic opportunities (eg extraction of minerals)
--protection from some disasters, like fire.

And some notable disadvantages:
--flooding (as Ravells points out), and some other disasters, such as tunnel collapses, and earthquakes
--lighting (likewise said by Ravells)
--ventilation
--food production (unless food is produced on the surface)
--and, of course, grues.

Madcowchef recently started a post that explores these ideas.

Those are some great links, by the way. Thanks for sharing Ravells.

THW

[Pineapple]

I remember reading an article about this city a long time ago, either in Discover Magazine or an issue of Dragon, I can't remember which.

Either way, as a D&D playing middle schooler my eyes lit up. It's just such a cool thing, and those big stone wheels that serve as doors with arrow slits in the middle. Ingenious.

[DarthChicago]

I would have thought smoke from firelight/torches may have been an issue. But apparently not.