Beneath the surface of our bustling cities lies a hidden world waiting to be explored. Hidden from the naked eye, these underground cities are great architectural feats. Some are ancient, whilst others have been carved into the ground in the last 100 years.
Amongst them are cities that have housed miners, peasants, Christians fleeing religious execution, or been built for the country’s most important delegates.
Impressively, most of these underground cities were carved deep into the landscape long before technology was invented, using simple hand tools.
Formed of networks of underground tunnels, vast chambers, and underwater wells they offer a glimpse into the realities of civilizations gone by or hope in the face of an apocalypse.
9. Underground Naples, Italy
Composed of a maze of narrow tunnels, vast chambers, and shallow pools this underground city is found 115 feet under the modern day streets of Naples. The origins of Underground Naples stretch as far back as the 5th century B.C.
The Greeks started digging the tunnels with basic hand trowels and they were later continued by the Romans. All in all, the underground city took centuries to complete.
The most modern use of Underground Naples was during World War II when it was used as a bomb shelter.
Today you can reach the tunnels by walking down a narrow passage that leads you down 142 steps to reach the underground city.
8. Pilsen Historical Underground, Czechia
Made up of a labyrinth of underground passageways, cellars, and wells, the Pilsen Historical Underground sits below the town of Pilsen. Stretching some 20 kilometers below the town’s city center, the underground city’s construction began in the 13th century.
Today you can only explore some 800 meters of the passages. Incredibly, there are some 20 wells along this stretch of the Pilsen Historical Underground alone.
Used extensively in the Middle Ages, they mainly served as storage and as a space to brew beer. Lots of pubs above the tunnels would serve customers in the passages below after closing hours.
7. Dixia Cheng, Beijing, China
This vast underground city was built to hold up to 40% of the city’s citizens in the event of a war with Russia. It is an extensive network of hand-dug chambers made up of 85 square kilometers of space.
Dug during the Cold War, parts of it are open to tourists. But today the majority of the Dixia Cheng is occupied by more than a million people, mostly migrant workers and students from rural areas, who live in the underground city’s humble dwellings.
There are more than 90 entrances into this underground city. Curiously, they added a cinema, classrooms, restaurants, and barber shops to help it feel more ‘normal’ in the event of a war.
6. Naours, France
First begun by the Romans in the 3rd century, Naours is a network of tunnels and grottos that were slowly carved out under the town of the same name. There are also three little chapels in Naours, the most famous is the Rotonde de la Sainte Vierge.
The underground city was inhabited by the Vikings in the 9th century, and possibly used as a hiding place for Christians fleeing persecution.
It’s also known that at one point in history Naours was home to a settlement of up to 3,000 peasants who set up chapels, wells, and shelters in the underground tunnels. They even kept farm animals!
5. Basilica Cistern, Istanbul, Turkey
This subterranean palace is far more elegant and luxurious than the usual decaying network of tunnels that make up the world’s underground cities. Commissioned by Roman Emperor Justinian, it was built in 532.
There are 336 columns holding up the towering roof of the basilica. Curiously, it was originally used as an underground space that served the Great Palace where the Byzantine emperors lived. It stored water brought from a reservoir near the Black Sea via a network of aqueducts.
After the emperors relocated it was forgotten for centuries. In 1545 it was rediscovered by Petris Gyllius who was exploring the reports of residents who said they could catch water (and even fish!) by lowering buckets below their houses’ basements.
4. Burlington, England
Known as the Burlington Bunker, this underground network is found below the charming market town of Corsham. It’s location is no coincidence either. There was already a series of limestone caves running under the city, which were incorporated into the bunkers design.
It was built in the late 1950s and is bomb-proof, radiation-proof, and poison-gas-proof! The reason why is because it was designated to house up to 4,000 Central Government personnel in the case of a nuclear war.
There are laundry rooms, storerooms, offices, cafeterias, and even an underground lake of freshwater. Incredibly, there’s even a secret rail line that goes to Burlington.
3. Wieliczka Salt Mine, Poland
The Wieliczka Salt Mine is found near the city of Krakow. It is made up of elegant underground chambers decorated with intricate salt carvings as well as a maze of underground mining tunnels.
Originating in the 13th century, the mines were commercially mined for the area’s characteristic gray rock salt until 1996. The mines extend 1073 feet below ground.
There are four stunning chapels in the mines lit by glass chandeliers. Carved out by the miners the largest of the chapels, the Chapel of St. Kinga, can fit up to 400 people.
Curiously, there is a specialist healing center in the mine where you can seek treatments for respiratory ailments!
2. Orvieto, Italy
The Orvieto Etruscan Caves carved below the town of Orvieto in Italy are an elaborate maze of caverns and tunnels. They were dug some 2,500 years ago by the Etruscans who were searching for water sources.
But the use of the tunnels continued long after the Etruscans left and into the Middle Ages. Each civilization that lived in the region left its own mark and added further tunnels. Now, there are more than 1,200 tunnels beneath Orvieto.
Notably, there is the Quarry Well inside the caves that was commissioned by Pope Clement VII in 1527 and the Mill of Saint Clare, an ancient olive press.
1. Derinkuyu, Turkey
Derinkuyu is the largest of the hundreds of underground cities built by the early Christians in the Cappadocia region. Fleeing persecution, the Christians built extensive underground networks complete with subterranean houses and communal facilities.
It’s thought some of the caves were originally carved into the soft volcanic rock in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. by the Phrygians. However, it was the Greek-speaking Christians who extended it into the underground city it is today.
The city is spread across some 20 levels and includes a wine press and church. With a capacity to hold some 20,000 people and a depth of 250 feet, the city is incredibly vast.
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