Underground Cities were excavated as early as Hittite times, and expanded over the centuries as various marauding armies traversed Central Anatolia in search of captives and plunder. There are 36 underground cities in Cappadocia. The widest underground city in Cappadocia is Kaymaklı Underground City and the deepest one is Derinkuyu Underground City.

It is unlikely that the underground cities were ever intended as permanent or even long stay, settlements, but they were clearly built to withstand attack and could support large numbers of people and their domestic animals, for long periods of time. The urban organization was very complex, and there was possibly always work in progress. Extensive networks of passages, tunnels, stepped pits and inclined corridors link family rooms and communal spaces where people would meet, work and worship. The cities were complete with wells, chimneys for air circulation, niches for oil lamps, stores, water tanks, stables and areas where the dead could be placed until such time as conditions on the surface would allow their proper disposal. Most importantly, carefully balanced moving stone doors, resembling mill stones, were devised to quickly block the corridors in the event of an attack. Of course, these doors operated from one side only.

Derinkuyu underground city is located in the same named town Derinkuyu, which is situated 40km far from Goreme. The underground city is approximately 85m deep. It contains all the usual rooms found in an underground city (stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, churhes, wineries etc.)

Kaymakli underground city is built under the hill known as the Citadel of Kaymakli which is 30km far from Goreme. People of Kaymakli (Enegup in Greek) village have constructed their houses around nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. While the city has 8 floors, only 4 of them are open to the public today, in which the spaces are organized around the ventilation shafts.