Behind a basement door in southeastern Türkiye lies a vast underground city, possibly the largest in the country, which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century B.C.
Archaeologists discovered this hidden city “almost by chance” during an excavation of house cellars in Midyat, near the Syrian border, in 2020. This led to the uncovering of an extensive network of caves.
So far, archaeologitst have cleared over 50 subterranean rooms, all connected by 120 meters of tunnels carved from rock. This is only a small portion of the estimated 900,000-square-meter site, potentially making it the largest underground city in southern Anatolia.
“Perhaps even in the world,” noted Mervan Yavuz, the Midyat conservation director overseeing the excavation.
“To protect themselves from the climate, enemies, predators, and diseases, people sought refuge in these caves and turned them into a functional city,” Yavuz added.
The art historian links the city’s ancient origins to the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II, who ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 883 to 859 B.C.
At its peak in the seventh century B.C., the empire extended from the Gulf in the east to Egypt in the west.
Known as Matiate during that period, the city’s entrance required people to bend and squeeze through a circular opening. This entrance first hinted at the existence of its subterranean counterpart to the Midyat municipality. “Pagans, Jews, Christians, Muslims—all these believers contributed to the underground city of Matiate,” Yavuz remarked.
The Orthodox Christian community in Mardin
Even after centuries of invasions had ended, the caves remained in use, according to curator Gani Tarkan. Formerly a director at the Mardin Museum, Tarkan noted that household items, bronzes, and potteries recovered from the caves are on display there.
“People continued to use this place as a living space,” Tarkan said. “Some rooms were used as catacombs, others as storage space.” Yavuz pointed out a series of round holes dug to hold wine-filled amphorae vessels in the cool, dark caves, away from the sunlight above. The Orthodox Christian community in Mardin region still maintains the tradition of wine production.
Turkey is also known for its ancient cave villages in Cappadocia, located in the country’s center. Unlike Cappadocia’s vertically stacked underground cities, Matiate spreads out horizontally, Tarkan explained.
The Midyat municipality, which funds the excavations, plans to continue until the site can be opened to the public, hoping it will become a popular tourist attraction for the city of 120,000.
“We actually suspected it existed,” Yavuz recounted while walking through the cave’s gloom. “In the 1970s, the ground collapsed and a construction machine fell in. But at the time, we didn’t investigate further; we just reinforced and closed up the hole.”
A refuge underground
The region where the cave city is located, once known as Mesopotamia, is recognized as the cradle of some of the earliest civilizations. Many major empires conquered or passed through these lands, possibly prompting the inhabitants around Matiate to seek refuge underground.
“Before the arrival of the Arabs, these lands were fiercely contested by the Assyrians, Persians, Romans, and then Byzantines,” said Ekrem Akman, a historian at the nearby University of Mardin.
Yavuz noted that “Christians from the Hatay region, fleeing from Roman persecution… built monasteries in the mountains to avoid attacks.” He suspects that Jews and Christians may have used Matiate as a hiding place to practice their then-banned religions underground.
He pointed to the intricate carvings—such as a horse, an eight-point star, a hand, and trees—that 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, Yavuz said it is “difficult to pinpoint” exactly what at the site can be attributed to which period or group.
