In the texts of Zoroaster, it is said that for about three years the entire Earth was hit by a sudden and brief ice age. They were called the ‘days of Malkush’. Several years before all this occurred, a deity, Ahura Mazda, offered the means of salvation. He said that if they wanted to save themselves, humans should organise themselves into underground cities until the frost wave had pᴀssed. Can there be any truth in this ancient tale?

What you see in the picture, is the mysterious ‘Underground City’ of Derinkuyu, Turkey. According to archaeologists, at least eight centuries before Christ (2,800 years ago at least) the core of that city already existed. We are talking about an entire city that could accommodate 20,000 people built 85 metres underground (!!).

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Perhaps the city was expanded and reused in the Middle Ages (one notes religious structures that could not belong to the ‘original version’). But after this brief hiatus, Derinkuyu was lost in the folds of history until 1963, when a man accidentally discovered a tunnel behind one of the walls of his house. The underground city is actually 18 stories deep, with wells, chapels, stables, schools and more, and is said to have been able to house up to 20,000 people.

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Over time, as modern technology allows us to explore the underground, we realise that the city of Derinkuyu is by no means an ‘isolated case’. Vast underground networks and even entire cities have been found all over the world. In Egypt, the Giza plateau has a huge underground system that is a combination of caverns and man-made tunnels, as well as rivers and underground pᴀssages. In Guatemala, 800 kilometres of tunnels have been mapped under the Mayan pyramid complex of Tikal. In 1992, 24 artificial caves were discovered in China, showing incredible craftsmanship that would have involved excavating 36,000 cubic metres of stone. Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of Stone Age underground tunnels stretching across Europe, leaving researchers puzzled as to their original purpose.

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Today, we know that around 12,000 years ago, a brief and intense ice age affected humanity. Scientists call it the ‘Younger Dryas’, or ‘Recent Dryas’. Are the ‘Days of Malkush’ and the ‘Younger Dryas’ the same thing? Conversely, from what, or from whom, did ancient people protect themselves by digging underground cities? Is it possible that ancient peoples, who theoretically did not even know iron and the wheel, were able to excavate these cities, for which we in the 21st century would take, at best, decades? What is our past hiding from us?