Derinkuyu Underground City: hours, entry fee and getting there
Derinkuyu Underground City is a refuge carved deep into soft tuff beneath the town of Derinkuyu, Nevşehir province, and one of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s museum sites. It is about 34 min by car from Göreme (road route on OpenStreetMap data; © OpenStreetMap contributors), not counting parking and the walk in, and 31 km in a straight line (map points: official and secondary source; © OpenStreetMap contributors).
Opening hours: 08:00–18:00, ticket office closes 17:15 (official; source: muze.gov.tr, last verified 16 Oct 2026). Hours change by season and on public holidays: check the official site before you go.
Entry for foreign visitors: €13 per person (official; source: muze.gov.tr, last verified 16 Oct 2026).
When is Derinkuyu Underground City open, and what does entry cost?
- Opening hours
- 08:00–18:00, ticket office closes 17:15
- Closed days
- Open every day.
- Entry, foreign visitors
- €13 per person
- Next fee change
- From 1 Apr 2027: €15 per person
We give information only and never sell museum tickets. Buy them at the ticket office or on the ministry’s official site, opens in a new tab.
The ministry’s page for this site, with its current hours: muze.gov.tr, opens in a new tab.
How long does Derinkuyu take, and when should you go?
- How long to allow
- Allow about 1 h for a visit, at least 45 min.Sample data
- Best time to go
- We have no records yet of when it is busiest. Arrive before the ticket office closes at 17:15.
Only a small part of the city is open to visitors. The levels near the entrance were mostly stables, since animals were hard to lead further down.
What is inside Derinkuyu Underground City?
Hundreds of rooms are linked by long galleries and winding tunnels: stables, cellars, dining halls, churches, a room for boiling grape molasses and a missionary school. A ventilation shaft runs down from the surface and also served as a well.
Kitchens and the rooms where grapes were pressed into wine or molasses sat on the upper floors, close to the way in. Not every family had a kitchen, so they were shared, and the tandoor ovens in them are still used in Cappadocian towns and villages.
From your base
About how long the drive is from each town you can stay in, not counting parking and the walk in (plans allow 5 min more for those).
Where is Derinkuyu, and how do you get there from Göreme?
The ministry gives its address as Şemşili Yolu Sokak, in the Bayramlı neighbourhood of Derinkuyu.
It is about 34 min by car from Göreme (road route on OpenStreetMap data; © OpenStreetMap contributors), not counting parking and the walk in, and 31 km in a straight line (map points: official and secondary source; © OpenStreetMap contributors).
Is Derinkuyu a good plan for a cancelled balloon morning?
Yes: the whole visit is underground, where, as the ministry notes, it stays cool in summer and warm in winter.
On a cancelled balloon morning, Plan B starts the day with indoor places like this one until lunch. It opens at 08:00.
What else is near Derinkuyu?
Kaymaklı Underground City
10 km in a straight line
Mustafapaşa
27 km in a straight line
Uçhisar Castle
29 km in a straight line
Ortahisar Castle
30 km in a straight line
Pigeon Valley walk (Güvercinlik)
31 km in a straight line
Photos: MusikAnimal, opens in a new tab, CC BY-SA 4.0, opens in a new tab; Wolfgang Moroder, opens in a new tab, CC BY-SA 3.0, opens in a new tab
Plan your days around it
Going at opening? Choose your month: the planner includes this place in your plan and builds your days around its opening hours and a balloon morning. You can remove it before you plan.