Çeşka Underground City

Perched on a high hill overlooking the surroundings, about 3 km northeast of Yozgat city centre and north of Kirazlı Pond, the Çeşka Underground City preserves traces of settlement dating back to around 3000 BCE. The site is accessed through three separate entrances: the original northwestern entrance is now sealed; the southern entrance leads to a two-storey complex of rock-cut chambers, half of which have collapsed, with two rooms topped by a second storey; and the northern entrance opens through a narrow gallery at the foot of the rock mass into a partly filled rectangular room, beyond which lies a large rectangular hall flanked by two large room doorways, two small rooms and two facing gallery doors. This hall, roughly 1.30 metres high, has a vaulted ceiling with niches of varying sizes; the western room has a ventilation shaft, while the eastern room contains a niche about 1.80 metres tall. Large and small rock-cut tombs have been identified at the uppermost part of the complex, and monochrome slipped and unslipped Roman, Byzantine and painted Phrygian pottery have been found among the ruins at the foot of the hill. Declared a protected archaeological site in 1990, the underground city underwent gallery-cleaning work carried out by the Yozgat Museum Directorate in 2008.