Cappadocia, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Türkiye, continues to captivate visitors with its ancient underground cities, attracting 1.33 million tourists in the first ten months of 2024. These subterranean marvels, originally built during the Hittite period and expanded during Roman and Byzantine times, were designed for temporary shelter and feature interconnected rooms, churches, kitchens, and storage areas carved into tuff rocks.
Among the nine open underground cities, Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu remain the most popular. Kaymaklı welcomed over 606,800 visitors in ten months, while Derinkuyu, the world’s largest underground city, attracted 453,456 tourists. Smaller cities like Özkonak, Tatlarin, and Mazı also saw significant interest.
Tourist guide Yunus Demirci highlighted Kaymaklı’s historical importance, noting its UNESCO designation since 1985. American visitor Gregory described the cities as “wonderful” and expressed amazement at the ingenuity of their ancient builders.