herded through the underground city

it was burning hot by the time we stopped in a little town called Derinkuyu to visit the underground city there, but as as soon as we got underground i wished i'd brought another layer. the rock was hard and cold to touch, the air cool and damp. there were evenly spaced electric lights with signs warning not to touch the wiring.

again, fast. this was a thousand year old sanctuary cut two hundred feet down into the rock and we spent perhaps twenty minutes moving through it. the passageways were tiny and close. you had to hunch and when you did your back would scrape the roof if you were not careful. sometimes the stairways were so narrow you could not turn around. there was a kitchen with an oven cut into the ground and a chimney about, storerooms with stone troughs, a winery with stone trays with drains to use for crushing grapes.

at the very bottom was the church, with a pitch dark passageway that led out into the stone and doubled back: the confessional, the voice in the dark.

the air had a smell i couldn't put my finger on. damp. near the ventilation shafts warm dry air spilled in and moved the dust on the ground.

i wish i'd had more time to sit and picture what life would have been like there. the city was a sanctuary for early christians to use to hide from roman persecutors. you could see the alcoves cut in for lanterns; you could see the rough crosses scratched in the walls. the city could accomodate thousands of people; it had its own wells, covered now with iron grates. persecutors would poison these wells to drive out those in hiding.



the truth of this scene: trust thyself. the tour just just barely worth it, but it was definitely not my style. i could have gotten myself to this cave city on my own and spent as much time as i liked here: it was the most interesting part of the tour and it was over altogether too soon. before any time at all we were herded back up to the third level past the school, past the stables nearest the entrance, and from there back up above ground where the light was blisteringly bright and the sun was hot.