Kaymakli Underground City

A visit to Kaymakli Underground City costs foreign visitors €13 in 2026 and lasts around 45 minutes, much of it spent stooping through tunnels. Below an ordinary Cappadocian village, people carved stables, kitchens, wine presses, chapels and living rooms out of the soft rock, going down several storeys. Visitors can enter four levels. Only Derinkuyu draws more visitors among the region's underground cities, and many find Kaymakli the easier visit.

Key details at a glance

The city's story in brief

The start of the digging is unknown. A few small rooms might date back to the Phrygians in the first millennium BC. In the Byzantine period the city was expanded a great deal, as Christian communities took shelter here from raids. Families could go below ground with their animals and supplies for weeks, closing the passages behind them with enormous round stone doors.

For centuries the villagers living above went on using the upper rooms as stables and cellars, and some Kaymakli houses still have passages down into the city. Visitors have been allowed in since 1964. Many lower levels have never been completely cleared. A long tunnel is said to link Kaymakli with Derinkuyu, but nobody has explored it fully.

Highlights

• The rolling stone doors. Round doors shaped like millstones, more than a metre wide, which could be rolled across a passage from inside.
• The stables. Near the entrance on the first level, with troughs and tethering holes cut into the rock.
• The church. On the second level, a small chapel with a plain altar and rock-cut benches.
• The kitchens and wine presses. Soot on the ceilings shows where fires were lit, and storage jars and grape-pressing troughs are carved into the floor.
• The ventilation shafts. Running vertically through every level, they supplied air and also worked as wells.

Several families shared the rooms on each level. The deepest levels held stores and served as the final hiding place when raiders arrived. Tool marks from the digging can still be seen on the walls and ceilings.

Kaymakli or Derinkuyu?

Derinkuyu reaches deeper, about 85 metres, and its long stairways are more dramatic. Kaymakli does not go as far down but spreads wider, with rooms packed close together that give a stronger sense of everyday life. Its passages are usually a little less steep, although several are very low and tight. Most tours include just one of the two, and either one shows well how people lived underground. For the deeper choice, read our Derinkuyu Underground City page.

When to go

Come at 08:00 or in the final two hours before closing. From about 10:00 tour buses arrive, and the narrow tunnels soon block up with groups waiting at each end. In summer the cool air underground is a relief from the heat, and in winter it is warmer below than above.

Our Best of Cappadocia: 1, 2 or 3-Day Private Cappadocia Tour visits Kaymakli Underground City with a private guide, from US$400 per day. The Private Cappadocia Tour Package 4 Days 3 Nights includes an underground city and a stay in a cave hotel, from US$270. Starting in Istanbul, the Private 2-Day Cappadocia Tour from Istanbul stops at Kaymakli too.

Practical advice

• If tight spaces bother you, keep to the first two levels; arrows mark a shorter circuit.
• Mind your head. Nearly every visitor hits it at least once.
• Follow the painted arrows on the walls, since some sections are one-way.
• Large backpacks get in the way in the tunnels, so leave them in the vehicle.
• The street leading to the entrance is lined with souvenir stalls, and you can bargain.

Read about more places in the area on our Cappadocia destination page.

Questions visitors ask