A Man Knocked Down His Basement Wall, Discovering Ancient Underground City That Housed 20,000 People (Video & Pictures)

Imagine knocking down a wall in your home as part of renovations, only to find a tunnel to a secret underground city behind it? Though this sounds like the plot from a fantasy movie, it actually happened to one guy in Turkey, in 1963. The man, from Cappadocia in the Nevsehir province of Turkey got the shock of his life when he discovered the tunnel, which led to the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu. Read on to discover more about this incredible find.

A Turkish homeowner chasing his chickens through a hole in his basement during renovations came across an abandoned underground Turkish city that once housed 20,000 people. In an effort to recapture his escaping poultry, the unidentified man knocked down the wall in the 1960s to reveal a dark tunnel leading to the ancient city of Elengubu, known today as Derinkuyu.