Archaeologists have discovered a new underground city in Konya

A new underground city has been discovered in the Sarayenu area, one kilometer north of the Roman underground city of Sarayini. Hassan Uguz, head of the excavation of the Sarayini underground city, said: "We have discovered a new underground city 1 kilometer north of the existing underground city. We have established that there are tunnel systems connecting these two underground cities. This is a harbinger of the fact that the underground city occupies a much larger area than we expected."

A 63 m2 cistern was found in the underground city, which was discovered as part of the work carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Municipality of Sarayenu. Together with the wells feeding the cistern, the water supply will be enough for almost 20 thousand people! There are also workshops of various sizes, living quarters, a large winery, cellars, storerooms, warehouses, air vents and rooms whose nature has not yet been studied.

The archaeologist of the Konya Museum Department and the head of the excavations, Hassan Uguz, said that thanks to the findings they were able to date the history of the underground city to the 8th century. "The discovery of a cistern, fortified premises and a winery suggests that this place had a wide range of uses beyond our assumptions," the archaeologist noted.