While underground isn’t anyone’s favorite place to live, cultures throughout history have experimented with the idea in one way or another. Even today, one can visit the remains of many fascinating underground cities and structures around the world – from the haunted vaults below Edinburgh to the vast network of catacombs beneath Odessa.
10. Matmata Underground Houses, Tunisia
Matmata is a Berber-speaking town in southern Tunisia known for its unique, underground houses carved out of the hillside. Also known as troglodyte houses, they were originally built to protect against the harsh hot and cold seasons of the region. However, many of them now lie unused and in need of repairs, with a few converted into hotels or other tourist sites. (Thanks in large part due to the fact they were used in Star Wars.) While we’re not sure exactly when they were built, they could go as far back as the 11th century, when the first Berber-speaking population moved and settled in the area.
The houses themselves are ingeniously built, with a network of tunnels connecting different sections like the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms. Apart from protection against tough weather, the fortified nature of the structures would have also protected against raiders and hostile states, as the Berber people were often persecuted by the more powerful Arab states in the region.
9. Vladivostok Fortress, Russia
Built in the 19th century as a Russian imperial base, Vladivostok is now a historical site located in the far-eastern Primorsky Krai region. It was one of the most impressive maritime fortresses of its time, constructed primarily for defense against Japan and other enemy attacks from the east. For a long time, the fortified city and its underground chambers housed the imperial Russian fleet, making it a potential target during a major war.
Today, the network of underground tunnels and bunkers beneath the port city has been turned into a heritage site, including a museum of objects that once belonged to the imperial Pacific fleet. Apart from vaults, passageways, and warehouses, the fortress also has a variety of bomb shelters and water reservoirs in case of a siege. Despite its age and wear-and-tear, the fortress remains in a relatively good condition, with much of its original structure still intact.
8. Coober Pedy Mining Town, Australia
The mining town of Coober Pedy in south Australia was built in 1915, after a large quantity of opals was accidentally discovered in the area by a little boy. By 1920, it had turned into a small city, as early residents began living and working underground to escape the extreme heat, building houses, churches, hotels, and small businesses to sustain the settlement. As demand for opals grew globally, Coober Pedy soon became a thriving center for opal mining, with miners and mining companies from all over the world flocking to the area to make their fortunes.
As of now, Coober Pedy is still a working opal mining town, with about 60% of its total 3,500 population living underground. Despite the especially-harsh conditions of the region and limited natural resources, the town has managed to survive and turn itself into a popular tourist destination over the years.
7. Tunnels Of Moose Jaw, Canada
The tunnels of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Canada were built during the early 1900s, back when anti-Chinese hysteria was gaining ground across Canada and the United States – a historical phenomenon we now know as the Yellow Peril. They were extensively used to transport Chinese immigrants from the USA to Canada, as most of the entrances were hidden in the underground basements of legal Chinese migrants living above. Evidence suggests that these tunnels served as hideouts for long periods of time and were often targetted by Canadian law enforcement agencies, pointing towards a dark-yet-forgotten phase in Canada’s history.
By the 1920s, the tunnels were used to transport liquor and other prohibited items during Canada’s Prohibition era, along with a slew of other criminal activities. Now, they’re a popular tourist attraction throughout the year, and one can even visit and explore the structure with one of the many guided tours available in the city.
6. Derinkuyu, Turkey
Derinkuyu used to be a sprawling underground city in the historical province of Cappadocia, Turkey. According to the Turkish Department of Culture, it was built around the eighth century BC by the Phrygians – an Indo-European culture thriving in the Anatolian region around that time. The structure is more than 85 meters – or about 280 feet – deep in some places, complete with living quarters, stables, storage rooms, and ventilation shafts.
While the city would have been home to more than 20,000 people at its peak during the Byzantine era, it fell into disuse some time after the Ottomans took over in the 15th century. It was rediscovered during an archeological expedition in 1963, and eventually opened to tourists in 1965. According to some theories, Derinkuyu served as an important center of refuge for the Christians persecuted during the first Islamic raids in the region.
5. Edinburgh’s Vaults, Scotland
Also sometimes called the South Bridge Vaults, Edinburgh Vaults are a series of underground chambers beneath the South Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland. They emerged around the same time as the construction of the bridge in 1788, and were originally used as underground workshops and storage for the tradesmen working above.
As the city’s population grew, the vaults came to be associated with the darker parts of life in Edinburgh, as they were soon populated by gamblers, bootleggers, murderers, and other criminals. If one rumor is to be believed, they were home to two of the most notorious serial killers in Scottish history – William Burke and William Hare.
The vaults were effectively shut down by the late 19th century, only to be rediscovered by a Scottish rugby player in the 1980s. Now, they’re considered one of the most haunted places in Scotland, thanks to a bunch of ghost sightings and other spooky phenomena observed in many of its 120 underground rooms over the years.
4. Wieliczka Salt Mine, Poland
Wieliczka is one of the two salt mines located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland. It was built in the 13th century, when salt emerged as an expensive, sought-after commodity around the world, and has been in continuous operation ever since. The mine has since been expanded and further excavated by many generations of miners, with a whole network of underground chambers, halls, and passages spread over nine levels.
Apart from being a functional salt mine and one of the earliest centers of industrial activity in Europe, it’s also a cultural and historical site called the Wieliczka Salt Mine City. By the 19th century, the entire structure was turned into a giant art exhibition, with salt-carved monuments, crystal chandeliers, decorated chapels, and other artifacts spread across its 2,400 chambers.
3. Berlin’s Atomic Bunkers, Germany
Berlin has been home to an extensive network of underground bunkers since at least the 1950s, when fortified underground structures came up as popular – even if untested – defense against nuclear weapons. While most of them were built as shelters for the Cold War, Berlin’s underground bunkers were surprisingly diverse, ranging from basic shelters to elaborate living spaces equipped with gas masks and other emergency survival equipment.
As the Cold War came to an end with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, most of these bunkers were abandoned or turned into museums and art exhibition centers over the years. One can still run into the city’s underground music scene in one of these spaces, as many of them have been reopened and repurposed as live music venues in recent years.
2. Odessa’s Catacombs, Ukraine
The city of Odessa in Ukraine boasts of the largest network of catacombs in the world, running across a total length of about 1,500 miles – or 2,500 kilometers. Originally carved out as a result of extensive limestone mining in the city in the 1600s, it’s now an entire underground city on its own, with over 1,000 known entrances and multiple chambers and passageways one can explore. Of course, one has to be particularly courageous to do that, as these catacombs have been used for some pretty dark reasons over the years.
During the Second World War, the maze was used as a hideout by occupying Nazi forces, and one can still probably find bones and other relics of the war if they explore the more remote parts of the structure. They’ve also been used as shelters during air raids, and as hidden smuggling routes during Soviet times.
1. Underground Great Wall, China
In the 1960s and ’70s, Chairman Mao ordered the construction of thousands of underground shelters and settlements across China, thanks to the growing threat of nuclear warfare around the world. In Beijing alone, more than 10,000 shelters were constructed to protect the capital’s growing urban population.
Due to its vastness and military-related objectives, the entire structure – which once covered an area of more than 85 square kilometers, or about 33 square miles – is also sometimes called the Underground Great Wall. According to accounts, the network included schools, movie theaters, barber shops, restaurants, shops, factories, ammunition arsenals, fortified bunkers, and pretty much everything else required to live underground for extended periods of time. Some parts were privatized and sold to smaller landlords, which were then converted into tiny residential units over time. Today, more than a million people live or work in the underground city.