Cappadocia's characteristic volcanic rock landscape lends itself to underground cities Cappadocia's characteristic volcanic rock landscape lends itself to underground cities
Cappadocia's characteristic volcanic rock landscape lends itself to underground cities Cappadocia's characteristic volcanic rock landscape lends itself to underground cities

An urban renewal project in Turkey yielded an unexpected archaeological bonanza: a 5,000-year-old, underground city.

Erdinç Çelikkan reports on what could potentially be the year's largest architectural discovery, an underground city located in Turkey’s Central Anatolian province of Nevşehir.

"The city was discovered by means of Turkey’s Housing Development Administration’s (TOKİ) urban transformation project. Some 1,500 buildings were destructed located in and around the Nevşehir fortress, and the underground city was discovered when the earthmoving to construct new buildings had started,"according to Çelikkan.

"Stating that they were going to move the urban transformation project to the outskirts of the city, Turan said they had paid 90 million Turkish Liras for the project already, but did not see this as a loss, as this discovery may be the world’s largest underground city."

The newly discovered city joins other such ancient cities found in the area, thought his one may end up being the largest of all the cities found so far.