The Study of Derinkuyu Underground City in Cappadocia Located in Pyroclastic Rock Materials

Abstract

Its aim is to provide a case study of the historical underground city built for up to 20 thousand people. This is a very specific, building-urban concept that is tied to the extraction of tuff rock building materials. These pyroclastic material ejected volcano in contact with Anatolian and Arabian tectonic plates. For the construction of the city were used exceptional boundary conditions. It is a fact that we have easily extractable building material which is self-supporting, and he does not need additionally reinforced. It means that these soft and stable rocks allowed the creation of large cavern system with a complete infrastructure that needed this underground city. It was placed in it both the living area and warehouse, educational, religious, wells, ventilation systems or stables for animals. There were in the in Cappadocia region up to 36 cities. The exact number depends on the classification criteria that were used.