Growing Food Underground Derinkuyu (4 replies)

I’m finding it very frustrating to try and find an answer to how cities of multiple thousands of people in Turkey fed themselves. Maybe this is known out there, but I can’t find an answer. All I see is “they had storage for food and animals”, but nobody seems to know how they grew any food without sunlight or how they fed their animals? Unless they had access to massive areas of sunlight or electric growing lights, how did they grow food? If they used the surface, then obviously it wasn’t dangerous enough up there to necessitate building some elaborate and huge “self contained” underground cities. If those huge blocks of stone for blocking entrances was for stopping invaders and not for stopping something else light heat or radiation, well then any invaders would simply burn your crops on the surface and the problem would be over.

So, if anyone including Graham or whomever can offer me some explanation here that makes sense I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you :)