For over 4,000 years, Cappadocia hosted visitors and/or invaders of all races and creeds. During the last of the second millenium B.C., Assyrian trade colonies were in control."The land of beautiful horses." Cappadocian Kings ruled from 332 B.C. to A.D. 17 Macedonian King, Alexander the Great was in Cappadocia. (334-332 B.C.) Romans took over, circa A.D. 17 and Roman-Byzantine rule lasted for about a thousand years.

In the 3rd century, priests with good character changed the region into a lively centre of Christian activity. In the 4th century Cappadocia became known as the land of the three saints; The Great St. Basil, Bishop of Kayseri; his brother St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianus. St. Basil founded small, secluded settlements far away from villages and towns. Daily worship was carried out under the supervision of a preacher. These groups were not, however, privileged groups separated from the community like similar communities in Egypt and Syria. St. Basil is important in that he introduced worship within the community in the churches of Cappadocia.

The city is approximately 85m deep. It contains all of the usual rooms found in an underground city (stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, churches, wineries etc.). Apart from these, a large room with a barrel vaulted ceiling on the second floor served as a missionary school, the rooms to the left used as study rooms.From the 3rd and 4th floors downward, vertical staircases eventually lead to a cruciform church on the lowest floor. The 55m deep ventilation shaft was also used as a well. Not every floor had access to a well however; some wells were not connected with the surface in order to prevent poisoning during enemy raids. Derinkuyu Underground City was opened to visitors in 1965, but only 10% of the city can be visited.

The migration routes of the Hittites are still disputable but they are generally accepted to have come down to Anatolia over Caucassus. The early clay tablets of the Hittites mention a number of kings, the most important of whom has been Anitta, who had chosen Kultepe to build his capital. The Hittites founded their empire in but expanded it to such an extent, that they conquered Aleppo and Babylonia, and overthrew the Hammurabi Dynasty of Babylonia. As a result of their expansion, they established close ties with the local peoples of Mesopotamia and Syria.