By the culture ministry's own estimate, between 150 and 200 underground settlements were cut into the soft tuff of Cappadocia – refuges with stables, storerooms, wine presses, churches and millstone doors that could only be moved from the inside. Five state-run sites are open to visitors: Derinkuyu, the deepest at around 85 metres, Kaymaklı, the most sprawling, and the small, quiet Özkonak, Mazı and Tatlarin. You can walk in on your own, no tour required. Two things surprise English-speaking visitors: foreign admission is priced in euro rather than lira, and almost none of the numbers that circulate in English – 18 levels, 20,000 residents, eight floors open – appear anywhere in the ministry's own material.
- TicketsNone.
- Price€13 (about $14.90) – Derinkuyu – foreign visitors aged 8 and over (no child, student or senior rate)
- OpenAll five state-run sites open daily, with no weekly closing day.
- Best timeThe first hour after opening (from 8am) or anything after 2pm.
- ClaustrophobiaThis is the decision point, and it is worth taking seriously.
The six underground cities compared
Derinkuyu
The deepest site open to visitors: around 85 metres by the culture ministry's figure, with stables, storerooms, a refectory, a wine press, a barrel-vaulted room on the second level known as the missionary school, and a cruciform church at the bottom. A 55-metre shaft served as both ventilation and well.
Only about 10 % of the site can be walked. Below the third or fourth level a long, low stair tunnel drops straight down – physically and psychologically the hardest passage of any Cappadocian site. Open since 1965, and the only one with officially listed evening hours (7pm to 9pm).
€13 (about $14.90) for foreign visitors aged 8 and over; included in the Museum Pass Cappadocia
Kaymaklı
The largest of the excavated sites by area, known in antiquity as Enegüp. Four floors have been cleared and lit, with the rooms grouped around the ventilation shafts. The highlight on the third floor is an andesite block with 57 cut hollows, used for crushing and grinding, alongside kitchens, wine presses and a striking number of storerooms.
Shallower than Derinkuyu but more of a warren: the passages are lower, narrower and more steeply inclined, but each stretch is shorter. Villagers still use parts of the tunnel system as cellars and stables. Open since 1964 and 20 km from Nevşehir, making it the easiest of the five to reach.
€13 (about $14.90) for foreign visitors aged 8 and over; included in the Museum Pass Cappadocia
Özkonak
A small two-storey site on the northern slope of İdiş Dağı, 14 km from Avanos, found by a farmer in 1972 and opened the same year. Tunnels, rolling stone doors, a stable and a wine press packed into a compact space.
Defensive details you will not see at Derinkuyu or Kaymaklı: holes above the corridors for attacking intruders from above, and narrow pipes between the levels that worked as both speaking tubes and ventilation. Far fewer people.
€6 (about $6.90) for foreign visitors aged 8 and over; included in the Museum Pass Cappadocia
Mazı
Ancient Mataza, 18 km south of Ürgüp and 10 km east of Kaymaklı. Probably four storeys, of which two can be walked. Four entrances are known; the main one leads through a stone-built corridor with a large rolling door into broad stables and a church whose entrance could also be sealed with a rolling stone.
Closed from 2003 over the risk of collapse and only reopened in July 2015, which is why older guidebooks and plenty of English pages still list it as shut or omit it altogether. Almost no coach groups.
€3 (about $3.45) for foreign visitors aged 8 and over
Tatlarin
Found in 1975 and partly open since 1991, on a hill the villagers call the Kale, the castle. Two cleared storeys can be walked; you enter through a 15-metre tunnel into a large hall with a rolling stone door.
Three skeletons were found in a niche off the entrance hall. The room is thought to have been a Roman-era burial place or prison, converted into storage pits in Byzantine times. Remote, west of Nevşehir near Acıgöl – effectively car-only.
free (09/2026)
Kayaşehir beneath Nevşehir Castle
A rock-cut settlement of tunnels, chambers and living quarters uncovered in 2014 during demolition for an urban renewal scheme on the castle hill in Nevşehir. It is run by the municipality, not by the culture ministry.
Turkish media like to call it the largest underground city in the world. That is an extrapolation, not a survey result, and no measured figure has been published. Much quieter than Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı, and it sits in the middle of town, so you can reach it without a car.
reported by a travel portal as 50 TL (about €0.90 / $1.05) for foreign visitors – not officially confirmed; not covered by the Museum Pass
Tickets and prices
None. There is no online booking to plan around: the muze.gov.tr product pages for Derinkuyu and for the Museum Pass Cappadocia both point you to the ticket desk on site.
Official prices
- Derinkuyu – foreign visitors aged 8 and over (no child, student or senior rate)€13 (about $14.90)
- Kaymaklı – foreign visitors aged 8 and over€13 (about $14.90)
- Özkonak – foreign visitors aged 8 and over€6 (about $6.90)
- Mazı – foreign visitors aged 8 and over€3 (about $3.45)
- Tatlarin – all visitorsfree
- Foreign children under 8 at all sitesfree
- Museum Pass Cappadocia – 3 days, more than 10 state museums and sites in Nevşehir and Aksaray provinces€65 (about $74.50)
- For comparison: Turkish citizens at Derinkuyu, Kaymaklı, Özkonak and Mazı200 TL (about €3.60 / $4.10)
- Kayaşehir beneath Nevşehir Castle (run by the municipality) – foreign visitors, per a travel portal, not officially confirmed50 TL (about €0.90 / $1.05)
- Conversion€1 = $1.1460 = 55.9077 TL, the European Central Bank reference rates for 18 September 2026; dollar figures rounded. The lira leg in particular moves fast – treat any TL figure on this page as a snapshot, not a price tag.
As of 09/2026 · source and direct booking: muze.gov.tr/muze-detay?DistId=DKY&SectionId=DKY01
When everything is sold out
Never. There is no cap and no timed entry, so tickets are always available. The bottleneck is inside: the corridors are single-file, and when the coach tours land between roughly 11am and 2pm you queue underground rather than at the door.
Green Tours and trips to the underground cities
Admission is cheap and never sold out, so a reseller is not buying you a ticket here – it is buying you the drive. The sites lie 30 to 40 km from Göreme with no direct bus, and the smaller ones are effectively car-only. Before you book, check two things in the description. Which underground city does the tour actually enter? Green Tours are sold as one product but some run Derinkuyu and some Kaymaklı, and the two are different experiences. And how long do you get underground? Most day tours schedule 45 to 60 minutes, in the middle of the day, when the corridors are at their most congested.
Full Day Cappadocia Red and Green Combined Day Tour
Cappadocia: Guided Green Tour with optional Lunch and Ticket
Full-Day Cappadocia Red/Green Combined Tour with Lunch
Cappadocia: Highlights Tour (Red Tour & Underground City)
Show all 12 offers
Cappadocia: Small-Group Green Tour with Underground City
Cappadocia: Underground City Tour With Valleys And Pottery
Cappadocia Green Tour
Cappadocia: Underground Cities Skip-the-Line Tour with Lunch
Cappadocia Half-Day Tour: Underground City & Secret Valley
Cappadocia Green Tour
Full Day Cappadocia Red - Green Combined Tour +Lunch+Tickets
Cappadocia Green Tour - Ihlara Valley Hiking & Selime
Booked through GetYourGuide (affiliate link, advertising). Most offers can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours ahead. Prices as of 20 September 2026.
Opening hours and best time
All five state-run sites open daily, with no weekly closing day. The official museum portal turkishmuseums.com gives Derinkuyu, Kaymaklı, Özkonak and Mazı as 8am to 7pm in summer (1 April to 1 October), last tickets 6.15pm, and 8am to 5pm in winter (1 October to 1 April), last tickets 4.15pm. Tatlarin is listed as 10am to 5pm, last tickets 4.15pm. The ministry's second portal, muze.gov.tr, disagreed on 19 September 2026: it gave Derinkuyu as 8am to 6.45pm and Kaymaklı as 8am to 8pm with the desk open until 7.15pm. muze.gov.tr also lists evening opening at Derinkuyu ("Gece Müzeciliği") from 7pm to 9pm, desk until 8.15pm, for which the museum passes are not valid. The safe rule: be at the ticket desk at least 45 minutes before closing, and do not plan a late visit around the longer of the two published times.
When it is quietest
The first hour after opening (from 8am) or anything after 2pm. In between, and especially from 11am to 2pm, the Green Tour groups fill the one-way corridors and you end up waiting underground at the pinch points – which is exactly the situation anyone with a touch of claustrophobia wants to avoid. There is a second reason mornings are busy here that catches people out: the balloons land between 7 and 8am, and the day tours roll straight from the landing field towards the underground cities, so the mid-morning is the worst of both. By season, April to June and September to October are ideal. In high summer the 13 °C underground is a relief; in winter it is warmer below than above, but the sites shut at 5pm.
Who it suits
With children
School-age children usually love it, for the simple reason that they can walk upright through corridors that fold every adult in half. Toddlers have to be carried, and a back carrier will hit the ceiling. Foreign children under 8 get in free.
Minimum age
There is no minimum age at any of the sites – the age thresholds you see online are ticket categories, not rules about who may enter.
Wheelchair
Not accessible. Steep stairs, uneven rock, and passages that can only be taken bent double.
Pushchair
Impossible. Leave the pushchair at the entrance or in the car.
Dogs
No operator statement found. Animals are not normally admitted to Turkish state museums.
Claustrophobia
This is the decision point, and it is worth taking seriously. The connecting corridors were deliberately built low, narrow and sloping so that attackers could only come through one at a time and bent over. The official portal describes Kaymaklı's passages as low, narrow and inclined; at Derinkuyu the long stair tunnel to the lower levels keeps you stooped for many metres at a stretch, and when a group is coming the other way there is no room to pass and no easy way to turn back. If the entrance area already feels wrong, do not go further down. The same applies to bad knees or a bad back: several minutes in a crouch is the real physical test here, not the depth.
What to wear
It sits at roughly 13 °C (55 °F) all year, so a thin jacket in summer. Closed shoes with grip – the tuff underfoot is polished smooth. No bulky rucksack, and nothing light-coloured: you brush against walls and ceiling constantly.
Photography
Personal photography is normal and tolerated. No official rule on tripods or flash could be found.
Getting there
By public transport
There is no direct bus from Göreme. Take a dolmuş to Nevşehir first, then change to the minibus towards Niğde/Derinkuyu, which runs down the D765 and stops in Kaymaklı after about 20 km and in Derinkuyu after about 30 km. Wikivoyage gives roughly a service every 15 minutes and a fare of 70 TL (about €1.25 / $1.45) to Kaymaklı as of September 2025. Return services thin out during the afternoon – ask locally when the last one leaves. Özkonak (14 km beyond Avanos), Mazı (18 km south of Ürgüp) and Tatlarin (near Acıgöl) are not realistically reachable by public transport.
By car
Straightforward with a hire car: from Nevşehir take the D765 towards Niğde. The official portal lists car parks at Kaymaklı, Özkonak and Tatlarin; at Derinkuyu you park in the village near the entrance. Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu are about 10 km apart and pair easily in one morning, and Mazı is 10 km east of Kaymaklı.
From the nearest city
Two airports serve Cappadocia. Nevşehir Kapadokya (NAV) is the closer one, roughly 40 km and 35 to 40 minutes from Göreme; Kayseri Erkilet (ASR) is about 80 km and 60 to 75 minutes away but has far more flights, which is why most visitors land there. From Nevşehir it is 20 km to Kaymaklı and 30 km to Derinkuyu; add the 10 to 12 km between Göreme and Nevşehir and you are looking at roughly 30 and 40 km from a Göreme hotel, or 30 to 45 minutes each way. Without a car the usual solution is the Green Tour: a full day heading south that pairs one underground city with the Ihlara Valley, Selime Monastery and Pigeon Valley, about 7 to 8 hours including entry fees, lunch and hotel pickup, and priced in 2026 at roughly €40 to €75 ($46 to $86) depending on the operator.
Tips for your visit
- Only time for one? Derinkuyu for the depth, and only if enclosed spaces are genuinely fine. Kaymaklı for more rooms, more to see and shorter tight stretches. Admission is the same €13 either way, so the choice is purely about what you want.
- Be there at 8am or come after 2pm. The coach tours arrive from about 11am, and in one-way corridors that means standing in a queue underground.
- Take the balloons into account. If you fly at dawn you will be back in Göreme by 8am, and every other balloon passenger is heading for the same underground city at the same time. Either drive straight there yourself, or leave it to the afternoon.
- Buy the Museum Pass Cappadocia (€65 / about $74.50, 3 days) only if Göreme Open Air Museum, Zelve, the Ihlara Valley and at least one underground city are all on the plan. For Derinkuyu plus Kaymaklı alone (€26) it does not pay. The Dark Church at Göreme costs extra even with the pass.
- Do not confuse the pass with the Müzekart. The cheap Müzekart is for Turkish citizens only; visitors can buy the MuseumPass versions (Cappadocia, Türkiye) and nothing else.
- Before booking a Green Tour, ask which underground city it enters and how long you get there. Operators differ – some run Derinkuyu, some Kaymaklı – and the stop is usually 45 to 60 minutes at the busiest hour of the day.
- Not sure you can handle the enclosure? Try Özkonak (€6) or Mazı (€3) first. Both are small, nearly empty, and you are back outside within minutes.
- Travel light. Wear the daypack on your front or leave it in the car, camera on a short strap, and keep your head down – tuff is soft, but the ceiling still wins.
- By public bus, start early and do Derinkuyu first, since it is the longer leg, then get off at Kaymaklı on the way back. That leaves you closer to Nevşehir as the afternoon services thin out.
- Carry both a card and some lira. Admission is denominated in euro but charged locally, and the village car parks, drinks stands and the guides at the gate are cash businesses.
What the internet gets wrong
Creators.yahoo.com, in a September 2026 listicle. The depth is right; the floor count is not from any official source. English pages give 8 levels (historyhit.com), 11 with 8 open (planetwhitley.com), 18 with 8 open (yahoo, pastpathways.com) and "4 open levels of 6 total" for Kaymaklı (epicturkeytravel.com). The culture ministry publishes no storey count for Derinkuyu whatsoever – its own site page gives the depth of about 85 m, the 55 m shaft, and the statement that about ten per cent of the complex can be visited. For Kaymaklı it gives four cleared and lit floors.
Creators.yahoo.com, and in near-identical wording on pastpathways.com, temrentravel.com, planetwhitley.com and historyhit.com. No excavation supports the number. Published estimates run from 3,000 to 50,000, and the ministry gives no figure at all – for Kaymaklı it says only that the quantity of storerooms implies a considerable number of people. It also describes the sites as temporary refuges during raids, not as places where anyone lived year-round, which is the part the "20,000 residents" framing gets most wrong.
Historyhit.com – the same idea carried by headlines such as Live Science's "Christians hid from Romans in underground city". Christians did not dig these places to escape Rome. The excavation is older and contested between the Hittites and the Phrygians, neither of them proven; the Christian population shaped the sites into their present form between the 6th and 10th centuries, and the major expansion falls in the Arab–Byzantine wars of roughly 780 to 1180 – centuries after the Roman persecutions ended.
Historyhit.com. Both halves of that are wrong. The ministry gives 1965 as the year Derinkuyu opened to visitors, and about ten per cent – not half – as the share you can walk. The practical consequence matters more than the date: you will not see anything close to the whole complex, whatever any itinerary implies.
"The entrance fee for visiting Derinkuyu Underground City is 100 TL, or about $6" (shippedaway.com); "typically ranges from 50 to 100 Turkish Lira (approximately $3 to $6 USD)" (pastpathways.com); "300 TL" for Kaymaklı (worldbyweekend.com); "approximately 350 TL" for both, on a page headed 2026 (visitcappadocia.com). Foreign visitors do not pay a lira price. Admission at Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı is set in euro at €13 – about $14.90, and about 727 TL at the ECB rate of 18 September 2026, so even the highest of those figures is under half the real fare. The 200 TL that circulates online is the rate for Turkish citizens.
Planetwhitley.com. There is no audio guide, at Derinkuyu or anywhere else among the five state sites, so there is nothing to rent. The signage point is fair – the route is marked with arrows and little else – but the fix is a licensed guide from the gate, whose fee and language you settle before going in, or a tour booked in advance. Nobody is obliged to take one: you may walk in and walk round alone.
"The underground city extends 85 meters below ground" and could house 3,500, said of Kaymaklı (worldbyweekend.com); Özkonak "about 60 meters deep" with "5 open floors" (visitcappadocia.com); and, from English Wikipedia onward, Özkonak as a ten-storey complex reaching 40 m that "could house 60,000 people" for three months. The 85 m belongs to Derinkuyu, not Kaymaklı. The ministry's own pages describe Kaymaklı as four cleared floors and Özkonak as two storeys, and give no capacity figure for either. The 60,000 for a site you can walk in twenty minutes is the least plausible number in circulation about Cappadocia.
"The Green Tour includes Derinkuyu", repeated as a flat fact across English guides and forum answers. It depends entirely on the operator. On 20 September 2026, tours-cappadocia.com's Green Tour itinerary read "Descend into Derinkuyu Underground City", while epicturkeytravel.com's Green Tour, at €60, read "We take you directly into the fascinating depths of Kaymaklı Underground City" and itemised a €13 Kaymaklı ticket. Both are standard Green Tours. If you care which city you see – and the two are genuinely different experiences – the itinerary has to be read before booking, not assumed.
History in brief
- The Turkish culture ministry puts the number of underground settlements in Cappadocia at 150 to 200, of very different sizes. Other counts, such as the 36 "discovered cities" cited on Wikipedia, are counting a different size class – the figures do not necessarily contradict each other.
- Who dug first is unsettled. The Hittites are named by the official portal for the uppermost floor of Kaymaklı, and the Phrygians of the 8th to 7th centuries BC are the other candidate. Neither attribution is archaeologically secured. What is certain is that the Christian population gave the sites their present form between the 6th and 10th centuries.
- The great expansion belongs to the Arab–Byzantine wars of roughly 780 to 1180, when the people of the plateau moved underground with their livestock and stores during raids. The sites were still being used during the Mongol incursions of the 14th century.
- The low, narrow, sloping corridors are not a quirk of the rock but defensive architecture: an intruder had to come through alone and bent over. The doors were millstone-shaped rolling stones that could only be moved from the inside.
- The Cappadocian Greeks used the sites as a refuge into the 20th century. The Cambridge linguist R. M. Dawkins recorded that in 1909, when news of the massacres at Adana arrived, much of the population of Axo went underground for several nights. The tunnels were abandoned with the Greek–Turkish population exchange of 1923.
- Derinkuyu was rediscovered by accident in 1963 when a householder broke through a cellar wall into a void. It opened to visitors in 1965; Kaymaklı had already opened in 1964, Özkonak followed in 1972 and Tatlarin in 1991.
- The figure of 20,000 inhabitants for Derinkuyu is an estimate with no archaeological basis. Published estimates range from 3,000 to 50,000 for Derinkuyu and 3,000 to 15,000 for Kaymaklı. The official portal gives no population figure at all: for Kaymaklı it says only that the number of storerooms implies a considerable number of people, and it describes temporary shelter rather than permanent habitation.
- An 8 to 9 km tunnel linking Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı appears in nearly every guidebook and in most English write-ups. It is a supposition: nothing of it is walkable, and no continuous survey has been published.
Frequent questions
How much does it cost to visit Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı in 2026?
Foreign visitors aged 8 and over pay €13 at each, about $14.90 at the ECB reference rate of 18 September 2026. There is no child, student or senior discount for foreign visitors; under-8s are free. Özkonak is €6, Mazı €3 and Tatlarin is free. Prices are denominated in euro and charged on the day, so the lira amount on your card will differ from any figure quoted online.
Derinkuyu or Kaymaklı – which underground city is better?
Derinkuyu goes deeper, around 85 m, and feels more dramatic, but it asks for a long descent through a low stair tunnel where you are bent double for minutes. Kaymaklı is broader, with more varied rooms across four floors and shorter tight stretches. For anyone with mild claustrophobia, a bad back or children in tow, Kaymaklı is the better visit. If you want the extreme version, take Derinkuyu. They cost the same.
Can you visit the underground cities without a tour or a guide?
Yes. None of the five state sites requires a guided tour: you buy a ticket at the desk, walk in, and follow the arrows, which mark the way down and the way back separately. The catch is that there is almost no interpretation underground, so on your own you will see rooms rather than understand them. Licensed guides wait at the entrances and will take you round for a negotiated fee. There is no audio guide anywhere, despite what several English pages say.
How many levels can you actually walk down?
Far fewer than the internet suggests. The culture ministry publishes no storey count for Derinkuyu at all – only that it reaches about 85 m and that roughly ten per cent of the complex is open. For Kaymaklı it gives four cleared and lit floors; Özkonak, Mazı and Tatlarin each have two walkable storeys. The "18 levels, 8 of them open" line that English guides repeat is not an official figure, and no site lets you see everything.
How long does a visit take?
Allow 45 to 90 minutes per city for the marked route, depending on how jammed the corridors are. Guided day tours normally schedule only 45 to 60 minutes, and they arrive at the busiest hour. Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are 10 km apart and can be combined comfortably in one morning with a car.
Is it a problem if you are claustrophobic?
Very possibly, and Derinkuyu more than the rest. The corridors were built low, narrow and sloping on purpose, so attackers could only advance one at a time and bent over. You stoop for long stretches, you cannot step aside when a group comes the other way, and turning back is awkward once you are in the flow. Test it: walk the upper rooms first, or try small Özkonak or Mazı, and decide from there. Nobody will stop you turning round.
How cold is it inside, and what should I wear?
About 13 °C (55 °F) year-round. In summer that is a welcome drop from the surface and a thin jacket is enough; in winter it is warmer underground than outside. Wear closed shoes with grip, because the tuff floor is polished smooth, skip the bulky rucksack, and do not wear anything you mind scuffing – you brush the walls and ceiling constantly.
How do you get there from Göreme, or from Kayseri and Nevşehir airports?
Nevşehir Kapadokya (NAV) is roughly 40 km and 35 to 40 minutes from Göreme; Kayseri (ASR) is about 80 km and 60 to 75 minutes but has far more flights. From Nevşehir it is 20 km to Kaymaklı and 30 km to Derinkuyu on the D765 – roughly 30 and 40 km from a Göreme hotel. Without a car, take a dolmuş from Göreme to Nevşehir and change to the Niğde/Derinkuyu minibus, which stops at both. Hire car or a booked tour is much simpler, and the smaller sites are effectively car-only.
Which underground city does the Green Tour visit?
Whichever one the operator has chosen – check before you pay. The Green Tour is the standard full-day trip south from Göreme, roughly 7 to 8 hours, pairing one underground city with the Ihlara Valley, Selime Monastery and Pigeon Valley, and 2026 prices run about €40 to €75 ($46 to $86) including entry fees, lunch and hotel pickup. Some operators run Derinkuyu, others Kaymaklı, and the itinerary usually says which. Expect 45 to 60 minutes underground, in the middle of the day.
Is the Museum Pass Cappadocia worth it?
It costs €65 (about $74.50) and covers more than ten state sites in Nevşehir and Aksaray provinces for three days. Two underground cities come to €26, so the pass only starts paying if you are also doing Göreme Open Air Museum, Zelve and the Ihlara Valley. It does not cover the Dark Church at Göreme, and it does not cover Derinkuyu's evening opening. Do not confuse it with the Müzekart, which tourists cannot buy.
Did 20,000 people really live in Derinkuyu?
There is no evidence for it. The number is one estimate among many that run from 3,000 to 50,000, and the culture ministry publishes none at all. More importantly, the framing is off: current understanding is that these were refuges used for days or weeks during raids, stocked with food and stables, not towns where a population lived permanently underground.
Are the underground cities suitable for children?
For primary-school age and up, often the highlight of the trip – children walk upright through corridors that have every adult crouching. For babies and toddlers it is hard work: no pushchairs, and a back carrier will catch the ceiling, so you carry them in front. There is no minimum age, and foreign children under 8 are free.
Sources
Show 32 sources – every figure on this page is sourced
- www.turkishmuseums.com/museum/detail/2203-nevsehir-derinkuyu-ye… – Derinkuyu: €13 admission for foreign visitors aged 8+, summer and winter hours with last-ticket times, depth about 85 m, 55 m shaft, about 10 % accessible, opened 1965, Museum Pass Cappadocia €65 for 3 days and not valid for evening opening
- www.turkishmuseums.com/museum/detail/x/2207/1 – Kaymaklı: €13 admission, opening hours, four cleared and lit floors, 20 km from Nevşehir, opened 1964, car park
- www.turkishmuseums.com/museum/detail/x/2209/1 – Özkonak: €6 admission, opening hours, two storeys, 14 km from Avanos, opened 1972
- www.turkishmuseums.com/museum/detail/x/2208/1 – Mazı: €3 admission, opening hours, 2 of a probable 4 storeys, closure in 2003, reopening July 2015, location
- www.turkishmuseums.com/museum/detail/x/2210/1 – Tatlarin: free admission, opening hours, discovery 1975, opening 1991, the 15 m entrance tunnel, the skeleton find
- muze.gov.tr/muze-detay?DistId=DKY&SectionId=DKY01 – Derinkuyu, official: hours 8am–6.45pm, evening opening 7–9pm, address, the 150–200 underground settlements in Cappadocia, description of the floors, Müzekart restricted to Turkish citizens
- muze.gov.tr/muze-detay?SectionId=KYY01&DistId=KYY – Kaymaklı, official: hours 8am–8pm, address, passages described as low, narrow and inclined, four floors, the andesite block with 57 hollows, about 100 tunnels in the village
- muze.gov.tr/urun-detay?CatalogNo=KRT-MSP01-19-001 – Museum Pass Cappadocia: 3-day validity, purchase at the ticket desk, Dark Church excluded; carries an outdated 320 TL price
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_underground_city – History: the Phrygian thesis, the Arab–Byzantine wars 780–1180, Mongol period, abandonment in 1923, rediscovery in 1963
- de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_(unterirdische_Stadt) – Rediscovery 1963, the 3,000–50,000 range of population estimates, contested dating, the supposed 9 km tunnel, the count of 36 discovered cities
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaymakli_underground_city – Kaymaklı: opening 1964, the Dawkins account of 1909, the population exchange of 1923, four floors open
- de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaymaklı – Kaymaklı: population estimates of 3,000–15,000; a divergent claim of five walkable floors
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96zkonak_underground_city – Özkonak: discovery in 1972 by Latif Acar, the communication pipes, the holes above the tunnels – and the unsupported claim of ten floors, 40 m depth and capacity for 60,000 people
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Nev%C5%9Fehir – Dolmuş Nevşehir–Kaymaklı–Derinkuyu (frequency, 70 TL as of 09/2025), Kayaşehir open since 2024
- cappadocianow.com/en/blog/public-transportation-in-cappadocia – No direct service from Göreme, change at Nevşehir, thin afternoon returns; the Green Tour as the alternative
- www.tours-cappadocia.com/derinkuyu-underground-city/plan-your-visit/ – Visit duration 45–90 minutes, about 13 °C, the 11am–2pm peak, guides at the entrance, not wheelchair accessible
- www.tours-cappadocia.com/green-tour/ – A standard Green Tour whose itinerary reads "Descend into Derinkuyu Underground City", 8.5 hours, guide and hotel pickup included
- epicturkeytravel.com/tours-and-activities/cappadocia-green-tour/ – A standard Green Tour from €60 that visits Kaymaklı instead – "We take you directly into the fascinating depths of Kaymaklı Underground City" – with the €13 Kaymaklı ticket, lunch and hotel pickup itemised
- kapadokyalist.com/blogs/kapadokya-gezi-rehberi/nevsehir-kalesi-… – Kayaşehir: discovery in 2014, run by the municipality of Nevşehir, admission prices (unconfirmed)
- api.frankfurter.dev/v1/2026-09-18?base=EUR&symbols=USD,TRY – European Central Bank reference rates for 18 September 2026: €1 = $1.1460 and €1 = 55.9077 TL, the basis for every dollar and lira conversion on this page
- www.welcomepickups.com/cappadocia/kayseri-airport-to-goreme/ – Kayseri Airport to Göreme about 80 km and 60–75 minutes by road
- rentotransfer.com/blog/nevsehir-airport-transfer-shuttle-taxi – Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport to Göreme about 40 km and 35–40 minutes by road
- creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/story/9-secret-underground-cities-… – Claims "plunging 18 levels and 85 metres", "built to shelter up to 20,000 people", "Only 8 of the 18 levels are open to visitors"
- www.pastpathways.com/turkey/how-to-visit-derinkuyu-underground-city/ – Claims "You can explore eight of the eighteen levels", "as many as 20,000 people in its prime", and an entrance fee of "50 to 100 Turkish Lira (approximately $3 to $6 USD)"
- shippedaway.com/derinkuyu-underground-city/ – Claims the entrance fee is "100 TL, or about $6", 18 levels at 85 m, 20,000 residents, and that the Green Tour includes Derinkuyu
- planetwhitley.com/derinkuyu-underground-city-cappadocia-ticket-… – Correct €13 and €65 prices, but claims "eight accessible levels" and that "renting an audio guide is essential"
- epicturkeytravel.com/cappadocia-underground-cities/ – Claims Kaymaklı has "4 open levels of 6 total" at about 40 m with capacity 3,500, Derinkuyu "11 levels" with 8 open, and gives the last-ticket time 18:15 as the closing time
- worldbyweekend.com/kaymakli-underground-city/ – Claims a "300 TL" entrance fee for Kaymaklı, that Kaymaklı "extends 85 meters below ground" with four of eight levels open, and that Byzantine Christians hid there from "Persian and Ottoman armies"
- visitcappadocia.com/cappadocia-blogs/underground-cities-of-capp… – 2026 page claiming "approximately 350 TL" for Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı, Özkonak "about 60 meters deep" with "5 open floors", and an 8 km tunnel between Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu stated as fact
- www.historyhit.com/locations/derinkuyu-underground-city/ – Claims the city was "established by Greek-speaking Christians" during the Roman period, spread "over 8 levels", and that "not until 1969" was "around half" opened to the public
- www.livescience.com/christians-hid-from-romans-in-underground-city – Headline framing of Cappadocian underground cities as places where Christians hid from the Romans
- temrentravel.com/destinations/derinkuyu/ – 2026 page with the correct €13 fee but claiming a depth of "approximately 60 meters" and "8 interconnected levels open to visitors"