In addition to the underground cities in Cappadocia, archaeologists have recently discovered another huge underground city in Turkey that researchers believe could be the largest underground city complex in the world to date.

The somewhat accidental discovery was made during cleaning and conservation work in the historic city of Mardin, when workers discovered an underground passage in the Midyat district of Mardin.

UNESCO World Heritage City of Mardin

The area around Mardin in southeastern Anatolia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and offers a number of impressive buildings and ancient ruins to visit above ground.

Construction workers now uncovered a limestone cave that led to a tunnel and from there into other caves.

Major excavation work began quickly and by the end of 2022, 49 rooms had already been opened to visitors for viewing. The underground city was named after the ancient Assyrian name of the city Midyat, Matiate, which means “city of caves.”

Behind the first cave were more caves, connected by an extensive network of corridors. A total of 49 rooms have been uncovered beneath the city, including pantries and rooms with altars, murals and underground springs. However, the archaeologists working on site suspect that the caves known to date only make up three percent of the entire complex. Based on artifacts found there, the use of the underground city could be dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

The archaeologists also assume that the underground city was used for around 1,900 years, was inhabited by up to 70,000 people at its peak and can be considered the largest cave system found in the world to date. The city's origins date back to the 1st or 2nd century AD. The excavation work was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Municipality of Midyat and the Mardin Museum and covered the entire Midyat district.

The practice of Christianity was forbidden - sometimes under penalty of death

Early Christians probably continued to expand the network of caves so that they could live here and practice their faith undisturbed. During the relevant centuries, the area belonged to the Roman province of Mesopotamia, and the practice of Christianity was forbidden - sometimes under penalty of death. Based on the size of the complex, the excavation manager and director of the local museum, Gani Tarkan, concludes that it was inhabited by around 60,000 to 70,000 people. This makes Matiate significantly larger than previously known underground cities. Derinkuyu in Cappadocia, for example, was “only” home to around 20,000 people; the residents there built their city up to eight stories deep into the ground.

Gani Tarkan assumes that the cave system served as a hiding place for those being persecuted. During Roman times, the Christian religion was persecuted and its followers were known to live in similar underground cities throughout Anatolia. In the cave system there is a Christian church and a room with a Star of David, which is believed to be a Jewish synagogue. Researchers assume that it was used as a hiding place between the 1st and 6th centuries. After the population came back to the surface, the premises continued to be used as a wine cellar and catacomb.

Tarkan: 60-70,000 people lived in underground city in Turkey

“This underground city was used continuously for 1,900 years,” said Gani Tarkan, director of the Mardin Museum and head of the excavations in Matiate. “It was initially built as a hiding place or place to escape. As is known, Christianity was not an official religion in the second century.

Families and groups that adopted Christianity generally sought shelter in underground cities to escape persecution from Rome or founded this underground city. The underground city at Midyat may have been one of the habitats constructed for this purpose.

We estimate that at least 60-70,000 people lived underground there,” said Tarkan. The researchers estimate that so far they have only been able to unearth 3% of the underground city's total size. This would make Matiate the largest cave city discovered to date. And that's saying something. Over 40 such sophisticated underground cities have already been found in Turkey.

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