Project set to uncover underground city life

NEVŞEHİR - Anadolu Agency

Within the scope of the project, the Kaymaklı underground city’s surrounding will undergo change. The business places in the entrance will be removed. AA photos

Life in Cappadocia hundreds of years ago is to be brought into the present with a new project foreseeing the establishment of a thematic exhibition and bee’s wax sculptures in the Kaymaklı Underground City. 

The Kaymaklı Underground City, which is 20 kilometers away from Nevşehir and opened to visits 50 years ago, was formed as a result of the improvement of underground shelters established by people, who lived in the region thousands of years ago to protect themselves from enemies. The shelters were restored and developed over centuries and the underground city has been formed. 

Life in the underground city, which receives much interest from local and foreign tourists, will be revived with bee’s wax sculptures to be made by Belgian sculptor Dirk Claesen. 

Kaymaklı Mayor Halit Elma said that the underground city, which was visited by approximately 2,500 tourists per day, was one of the most important centers in Cappadocia in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri. 

When compared to other underground cities, the mayor said, Kaymaklı was preferred by tourists thanks to the site’s large area and ease of visiting, and tourists wanted to see how life there had been thousands of years ago. 

Prehistoric life to be revived 

Elma said that they had developed the project to promote the underground city to tourists more effectively, adding, “Our purpose is to show the life here centuries ago and contribute to the region’s tourism. 

The project at the same time will ease the work of guides. Daily life in the underground city will be told with a thematic exhibition and bee’s wax sculptures.” 

Elma said that the project was carried out in collaboration with the Nevşehir Museum Directorate, and added, “There are good examples of this abroad and we have invited bee’s wax maker Claesen. He will come to the region in the coming days and we will talk to him about the details of the project. The project is set to finish in 2014.”

The mayor said that besides the changes inside the underground city, they would also rearrange its surroundings. Within the scope of the underground city’s restoration and its “Vicinity Rural Design Environmental Arrangement Project,” they had also decided to remove the business places at the entrance of the underground city that created visual pollution. 

He said that the business places would be moved to new places arranged next to the city. “We established 33 new places of business. Seventy percent of the project has been completed. We were awarded by the Union of Historical Towns last year for this project. The total cost is 5.5 million Turkish Liras. We will finish the work soon and open it in the new season.”