Joe Rogan Experience #2534 - Annie Jacobsen · Aired Jul 31, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
Only 10% of the Derinkuyu underground city has been explored.
The finding
What the evidence shows
The 10% figure is real, but it's describing something different than what this claim implies. That's the share of Derinkuyu that's open to tourists, not the share archaeologists have actually explored, and other accounts describe less than half of the underground city as excavated so far.
Read the supporting source · www.zmescience.com ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that only 10% of the Derinkuyu underground city has been explored?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. The 10% figure is real, but it's describing something different than what this claim implies. That's the share of Derinkuyu that's open to tourists, not the share archaeologists have actually explored, and other accounts describe less than half of the underground city as excavated so far. Jamie Vernon said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2534 - Annie Jacobsen, aired Jul 31, 2026, at 32:54. The supporting source is zmescience.com, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
- Not independently confirmed in this record
- Editorial context review
- Not recorded; generated finding
- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
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