Derinkuyu

The first place we went in Cappadocia was called Derinkuyu. It is an are of particular archaeological interest because no one knows for sure how many underground cities were in the area (est. about 35) but only a few have been excavated, and this one is the biggest and the best of those the public can access. The archaeologists/ anthropologists guess about 20,000 people lived there in the various pockets.

The different levels were for different purposes, like the first level held the animals, the second level was the "toilets" both of which were far from the living quarters and I'm sure served as an extra level of protection against invaders. Lower down there were communal areas such as cooking areas and a chapel, wine press and food storage, and lower still living spaces. Arcadia and Matthijas love caves and so they had a lot of fun crawling through the tight spaces (and hearing their voices echo).

You would expect life in a cave to be miserable, and it couldn't have been fun, but it was very well organized (the shape is planned like a tree with the upper levels like branches, the center was mostly solid like a trunk to support the upper levels, and the lower levels were the roots). There were crucial blockage points for protection and amazing ventilation shafts that were invisible even from above.