Midyat, Turkey – a city steeped in history and culture, known for its beautiful architecture and bustling markets. But hidden beneath the streets lies a secret that has recently been uncovered – a sprawling underground city that may be the largest in all of Turkey.
The discovery of this underground city was made almost by chance in 2020, when archaeologists stumbled upon a vast labyrinth of caves while excavating house cellars in Midyat, a town near the Syrian border. Since then, more than 50 subterranean rooms have been cleared, connected by 120 meters of tunnels carved out of the rock. However, this is just a fraction of the estimated 900,000-square-meter area, making it potentially the largest underground city in Turkey’s southern Anatolia region, and possibly even the world.
According to Mervan Yavuz, the conservation director of Midyat who oversaw the excavation, this underground city may date back to the ninth century before Jesus Christ. It is believed to have been used as a refuge by the people of the region to protect themselves from the harsh climate, enemies, predators, and diseases. The city’s ancient beginnings can be traced back to the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II, who ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 883 to 859 BC. At its peak, the empire stretched from the Gulf in the east to Egypt in the west.
Known as Matiate during this period, the original entrance to the underground city required people to bend in half and squeeze themselves into a circular opening. This entrance was what first gave the Midyat municipality an inkling of the city’s existence. “We actually suspected that it existed,” Yavuz recalled as he walked through the cave’s gloom. “In the 1970s, the ground collapsed and a construction machine fell down. But at the time, we didn’t try to find out more, we just strengthened and closed up the hole.”
The region where the cave city is located was once known as Mesopotamia, recognized as the cradle of some of the earliest civilizations in the world. Over the centuries, many major empires conquered or passed through these lands, which may have given those living around Matiate a reason to take refuge underground. “Before the arrival of the Arabs, these lands were fiercely disputed by the Assyrians, the Persians, the Romans, and then the Byzantines,” said Ekrem Akman, a historian at the nearby University of Mardin.
Yavuz believes that Christians from the Hatay region, fleeing from the persecution of the Roman Empire, may have used Matiate as a hiding place to practice their then-banned religions underground. He pointed to the inscrutable stylized carvings – a horse, an eight-point star, a hand, trees – which adorn the walls, as well as a stone slab on the floor of one room that may have been used for celebrations or sacrifices. Due to the city’s long continuous occupation, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which period or group these artifacts can be attributed to. Yavuz believes that “pagans, Jews, Christians, Muslims, all these believers contributed to the underground city of Matiate.”
Even after the threat of centuries of invasions had passed, the caves continued to be used. Gani Tarkan, a curator who used to work at the Mardin Museum, where household items, bronzes, and potteries recovered from the caves are on display, explained that “people continued to use this place as a living space. Some rooms were used as catacombs, others as storage space.”
One interesting feature of the underground city is a series of round holes dug to hold wine-filled amphorae vessels. This tradition of wine production is still maintained by the Orthodox Christian community in the Mardin region to this day. Turkey is also famous for its ancient cave villages in Cappadocia, located in the center of the country. However, while Cappadocia’s underground cities are built with rooms stacked vertically on top of each other, Matiate spreads out horizontally, making it a unique and fascinating site.
The municipality of Midyat, which funds the excavation, plans to continue the work until the site can be opened to the public. They hope that this underground city will become a popular tourist attraction and bring visitors to the city of 120,000. With its rich history and unique features, the
