Ancient Underground City Excavated in Turkey

News May 16, 2022

SHARE:

MARDIN PROVINCE, TURKEY—The Anadolu Agency reports that a small section of an underground city complete with dwelling areas, grain storage silos, wells, tunnels, and a possible Christian church and a possible Jewish synagogue has been unearthed in southeastern Turkey. An entrance to the underground city was discovered two years ago in a cave at the open-air museum of the ancient settlement of Midyat. Gani Tarkan of the Mardin Museum said that the 49 underground rooms explored so far are thought to represent only about three percent of the city, which may have sheltered as many as 70,000 people. Some of the rooms may have been used by Christians who were hiding from the Roman authorities in the second and third centuries, he added. To read about rare theater masks discovered under a Roman fortress in Mardin, go to “Masked Men.”

  • Features March/April 2022

    The Last King of Babylon

    Investigating the reign of Mesopotamia’s most eccentric ruler

    Read Article
    (iStock/HomoCosmicos)
  • Features March/April 2022

    Paradise Lost

    Archaeologists in Nova Scotia are uncovering evidence of thriving seventeenth-century French colonists and their brutal expulsion

    Read Article
    (© Jamie Robertson)
  • Features March/April 2022

    Exploring Notre Dame’s Hidden Past

    The devastating 2019 fire is providing an unprecedented look at the secrets of the great cathedral

    Read Article
    (Patrick Zachmann)
  • Letter from Doggerland March/April 2022

    Mapping a Vanished Landscape

    Evidence of a lost Mesolithic world lies deep beneath the dark waters of the North Sea

    Read Article
    (M.J. Thomas)