Video compares proposed Christian, Hittite and Persian origins for Derinkuyu

Lost Civilization

March 16, 2026TürkiyeGeneralShare

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Key facts

• Derinkuyu, also known as Elengubu, extends approximately 85 m below the surface and has up to 18 levels; only part of the complex is open to visitors.
• It could accommodate roughly 20,000 people.
• Derinkuyu's construction date is uncertain. The supplied evidence documents Byzantine Christian and Jewish use as refuges in the 8th–12th centuries C.E.; it does not establish either the 1st–4th- or 4th–7th-century construction dates stated in the post.
• Some historians have proposed Hittite builders in the Hittite period, c. 1600–1200 BCE. That date belongs to the hypothesis, not to a confirmed construction date.
• The Avestan narrative describes Ahura Mazda instructing Yima to build a subterranean refuge, Vara, in response to a catastrophic winter.
• The video argues that this narrative supports a Persian origin for Derinkuyu and invokes Persian scholarship placing underground cities before the Younger Dryas. This is the presenter's interpretation, not an established archaeological conclusion.
• The relative dating of early Zoroastrianism and Judaism is debated, so the categorical claim that Zoroastrianism predates Judaism is not established; Christianity and Islam are later.

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