Turkey’s landscape is a treasure trove of ancient secrets, with astonishing discoveries still being made beneath its surface. Some of the most remarkable finds are its sealed underground cities and royal tombs, revealing how people once lived, worshipped, and thrived in complete darkness for centuries.
One of the most exciting recent discoveries happened at Gordion, an ancient city in Anatolia. Archaeologists from the Penn Museum, working with the Turkish Ministry of Culture, uncovered a burial chamber sealed for 2,800 years.
This chamber, dating to the era of King Midas—the legendary ruler with the golden touch—contained 88 remarkably well-preserved artifacts, including bronze cauldrons, vessels, and iron tools. These items, some still bearing fragments of fine textiles, suggest they were used for funeral feasts honoring royalty.
The tomb’s location and the quality of its contents strongly indicate a connection to Midas or his royal family, possibly even his father, Gordius. The chamber also revealed evidence of cremation, which was previously thought to have appeared in Gordion’s culture a century later. This pushes back the timeline for burial customs and highlights the region’s advanced textile industry.
Beyond royal tombs, Turkey is famous for its vast underground cities. In the Midyat district, workers recently stumbled upon the entrance to Matiate, a sprawling subterranean metropolis sealed for nearly 2,000 years.
Only 3% of Matiate has been excavated, yet archaeologists have already uncovered 49 rooms, including places of worship, storage areas, wells, and corridors. Experts estimate that Matiate could contain thousands of rooms and may have housed up to 70,000 people—far surpassing the famous Derinkuyu underground city, which sheltered about 20,000.
These underground cities were first built as hideouts, especially for early Christians escaping Roman persecution. Over the centuries, they provided refuge from invasions and religious conflicts, with entire communities living, working, and worshipping below ground. The region of Cappadocia alone is home to more than 40 complex subterranean sites, many interconnected by tunnels.
Derinkuyu, the deepest, stretches 18 stories below ground and was equipped with ventilation shafts, rolling stone doors, stables, wine cellars, chapels, and even a religious school. Neighboring cities like Kaymakli were connected by miles of tunnels, allowing people to move between settlements without ever surfacing.
Recent research has also focused on the unique soundscape of these underground cities. Acoustic studies at Derinkuyu reveal how ventilation shafts and stone corridors carried voices and sounds throughout the city, shaping daily life in ways modern cities cannot replicate.
In 2016, another stunning discovery was made in Cappadocia—a Byzantine church carved deep underground, its walls adorned with vibrant frescoes depicting scenes from the life of Jesus and the apostles.
These artworks, hidden from sunlight for centuries, offer new insights into early Christian practices and the region’s religious history. Cappadocia’s landscape is dotted with ancient churches, chapels, and monasteries, many still decorated with richly colored biblical scenes.
Turkey’s underground wonders continue to reshape our understanding of ancient civilizations.
From royal tombs to hidden cities, these discoveries reveal a world where people built, worshipped, and survived in the depths of the earth, leaving behind stories in stone, sound, and color. As excavations continue, who knows what other secrets lie waiting beneath Turkey’s surface, ready to rewrite history once again.
