I’ve always found troglodyte to be such an odd word. It somehow seems very offensive. All it means is ‘A person who lived in a cave.’ I guess that has come negative connotation now a days. I mean who lives in a CAVE? Well, thinking of it, I guess some people we don’t much like but let us not go there. We’re here to talk about underground cities.
So imagine my surprise – and delight of an actual use for the word troglodyte – when I actually read of entire cities built underground. That is pretty unusual I’d say. A cave for shelter sure, an entire city underground – surely not.
But yes! Apparently the Cappadocia region of Turkey is host to a number of underground cities. The rock is so soft there you can apparently dig through it with your hands. So take for example Derinkuyu, an underground city where they even build bars (as in drinking) and giant churches underground. It seems some motivation behind these cities was to provide defense against others. People says times are tough now, whatever. Those are some crazy hard times when you become a troglodyte for safeties sake… We’ve got it easy.
2 replies on “Troglodyte – not just a funny sounding word”
I also like the word, “subterranean,” which seems fitting.
For some reason I thought the word was trilobyte, but that is not the same thing at all.