Imagine you’re doing some home renovations and you knock down a wall. Behind it, you discover a mysterious room you had no idea existed. A startlingly intricate network of tunnels lies beyond the room. Imagine you’re doing some home renovations and you knock down a wall. Behind it, you discover a mysterious room you had no idea existed. A startlingly intricate network of tunnels lies beyond the room.

What awaits at the end of all those tunnels? An underground city that had been abandoned and forgotten for centuries. This was precisely what happened to a man in Turkey’s Nevşehir Province in 1963. He accidentally discovered an ancient underground city called Derinkuyu after knocking down a wall in his house. Derinkuyu was remarkably well preserved despite being lost for hundreds of years.

The city is one of the dozens of rock-carved subterranean structures in the Cappadocia region. The city has numerous entrances and exits, connecting passageways, a ventilation system (air is definitely something to consider when living so deep underground), and wells. The most impressive aspect of Derinkuyu is that, while it is not the oldest underground city discovered, it is the deepest at 18 stories.

But what’s the point of having such a vast underground city? Experts believe these subterranean locations served as ancient underground bunkers for previous civilizations. It’s possible they wanted to avoid the dangers of war or natural disaster. Derinkuyu is a beautiful and unique location that many people get to visit and study because of one man’s desire to make some changes to his home.