“Two mighty meteors — of sun- and moon-like apparent size and shape — appear threateningly with their accompaniments. The star-world falls into turmoil, and the actual war begins: the Morning Star (Venus) opens it, standing on the back of Leo. Seven months later a new heaven results, as the Sun moves from about mid-Virgo to mid-Aries. The stars that ruled the dawning morning sky plunge at last into Okeanos and set the earth afire. Such is the fundamental thought — recognized only once facts beneath poetry’s veil are laid bare.”
The discovery forced a rewrite of what archaeologists thought they knew about underground construction in the ancient world. Before 1963, the largest known subterranean complexes were the Roman catacombs and the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. Derinkuyu alone could hold twenty thousand people. Kaymaklı, nine kilometres away, was larger still. The two were probably connected by a tunnel whose ventilation shafts have since been filled with rubble.