Hundreds of sinkholes are tearing open the parched farmlands of central Turkey, turning the Konya Plain—long described as the country’s breadbasket—into a fractured landscape. Drone footage released this week by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority shows enormous cavities rupturing wheat fields and grazing areas, some wide enough to swallow farm machinery and so deep that their bottoms are lost in shadow. Officials identified 684 sinkholes across the Konya region, an unprecedented number that is alarming local farmers and drawing new scrutiny to decades of groundwater depletion.
A detailed assessment from state and university researchers attributes the crisis to severe drought, climate stress, and unregulated drilling that has drained the aquifers beneath Konya. Heavy irrigation for sugar beet and corn has pulled the groundwater table down by tens of meters in recent decades. Agricultural districts that once saw only a handful of sinkholes per decade are now seeing dozens every year. Konya Technical University reported that more than 20 new large sinkholes emerged in the past year in the Karapınar district alone, with some collapses stretching more than 100 feet across and plunging hundreds of feet deep. The university’s Sinkhole Research Centre noted that by the end of 2021, nearly 1,850 sites were already showing signs of subsidence.
NASA’s Earth Observatory has described Turkey’s ongoing drought as severe, noting that national reservoirs hit their lowest levels in fifteen years in 2021. Local news outlet Turkey Today reported that sinkholes in Karapınar are now threatening productive farmlands, and some farmers have been forced to abandon fields considered at risk. One wheat farmer said he lost part of a season’s harvest when the ground “gave way without a sound.” Turkish authorities responded by increasing monitoring in the Konya Basin and launching new programs to curb illegal wells.
The sight of the earth suddenly breaking open carries a deep Biblical resonance. The most dramatic example appears in the rebellion of Korach. When Korach gathered his followers against Moses and Aaron, the punishment came not from plague or sword but from the ground beneath them. The Bible describes the moment with stark clarity: “And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korach, and all their goods” (Numbers 16:32). The Sages taught that Korach and his congregation did not perish in the usual sense. They remain alive beneath the earth, awaiting the end of days.
A Midrash cited in the Tosafot (Kiddushin 31b) links Korach’s fate to the future redemption. The commentary asks why Psalm 82 is called a mizmor—a song—despite its lament over the destruction of the Temple. The Tosafot offers a remarkable explanation. Asaf, a descendant of Korach, perceived salvation hidden within devastation. The Midrash compares it to a maidservant who dropped her clay pitcher into a well. She despaired until the king’s maidservant approached with a golden pitcher, which also fell in. The first maidservant then rejoiced: if the king’s servants retrieve the golden vessel, her simple one will come out too. In the same way, when the sons of Korach saw the gates of the Temple sink into the earth, they proclaimed that whoever rescues the gates will also rescue them. That, the Midrash teaches, is why Asaf called it a song.
Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman, director of Ohr Chadash Torah Institute, said that the proliferation of sinkholes carries an echo of the Biblical archetype of Korach. He explained that Korach was extraordinarily righteous before his rebellion. His argument that all Israel possesses inherent holiness was not false; it was premature. “His vision belonged to the messianic era, which is why he wasn’t killed,” Rabbi Trugman said. “According to the Midrash, he was swallowed by the earth and will reemerge in the days preceding the Messiah.”
Rabbi Trugman cited a teaching from Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, who found a hint in the verse “The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree — tzaddik katamar yifrach” (Psalms 92:13). The final letters of these Hebrew words spell the name Korach. According to the Ari, the verse points to the end of days, when Korach’s underlying claim—that God’s presence dwells among all Israel—will be understood in its proper time. “When Korach first made this claim, he was blinded by ego,” Rabbi Trugman said. “In the future, Korach will be considered righteous, and his vision of Israel’s unity will be fulfilled.”
The collapsing ground in Turkey is a geological event, not a supernatural omen. But the imagery of the earth opening has carried a singular meaning since the days of Moses. The Sages understood that the earth itself can become a stage for judgment and redemption. As the Konya Plain continues to fracture, the sight of those widening chasms calls to mind one of the Bible’s most powerful warnings—and one of its most surprising promises.