WebUrbanist » 7 (More!) Underground Wonders of the World: Lost Caverns and Buried Cities

7 (More!) Underground Wonders of the World: Lost Caverns and Buried Cities

Poland 1

The world is full of wonders, from abandoned towns and deserted settlements to underwater cities and underground architecture. Humans burrow into the Earth out of anything from necessity to superstition, driven by coincidence or coerced by circumstance. Without further ado, here are seven more underground wonders of the world.

Turkey 2

Turkey 3

Turkey

Kapadokya, Turkey is home to hundreds of linked rooms that, together, form an ancient system of underground cities over 2,500 years old. Areas are separated by narrow corridors lit once lit by oil lamps as well as other architectural devices for maximizing the defensibility of the spaces. Settlement initially started on the surface, then slowly moved underground over time.

Hobbit House 2

Hobbit House 1

Pembrokeshire, Wales is home to a family with a house straight out of The Hobbit. This amazing architectural wonder is created virtually completely from the natural materials found around the residence. The walls are made out of stone and mud and water enters the house by gravity from a nearby spring. Non-natural materials, such as windows and plumbing, were recovered from trash.

Edinburg 1

Edinburg 3

Edinburg 2

Edinburgh, Scotland has a long and strange history, though perhaps the oddest story of all is the tale of a bridge that was buried underground. After this bridge was built, superstition following a prominent death led to its disuse. As property values in the area grew, however, people first built under and then even on top of the bridge. Eventually leaks forced the abandonment of the spaces below, which were subsequently filled in. They were recently rediscovered and opened for tourists!

Tokyo 3

Tokyo 2

Tokyo 1

Tokyo, Japan is at the heart of a strange and gripping mystery involving seven riddles and a supposed secret underground city. It all began when Japanese researcher Shun Akiba found an old map of the Tokyo tunnel system that didn’t match current maps. Since then, he has found six other strange inconsistencies in historical maps and other records that suggest the existence hidden spaces. His claims have been vehemently denied by the Japanese government.

Seattle 1

Seattle 3

Seattle 2

Seattle, Washington’s Pioneer Square district has a very peculiar historical quirk: a century ago, they raised the streets by an entire floor. People actually died falling off of the street to the lower sidewalks below before they managed to raise the sidewalks to the same level. Eventually, what was street level became completely unused and abandoned, though it was recently reopened for visitors.

Poland 3

Poland 4

Poland 2

Wieliczka, Poland sits atop one of the world’s oldest salt mines, in continuous operation for over 800 years until just this year. As these images show, the mine is now open to tourists, with winding paths and bridges as well as art, much of which is carved right out of the salt in the mine. Over 1,000 feet deep, the mine even housed an airplane factory run by the Polish resistance during the 2nd World War.

China

Xi’an, China is now famous for featuring the Mausoleum of Qinshihuang, the biggest imperial tomb known to Chinese history. This subterranean wonder was constructed in 38 years by 700,000 laborers, and is perhaps best known for the host of terracotta warriors buried with the Emporer. During the process numerous world-shocking relics were brought out, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, and more treasures remain buried in the underground palace.

Denver Airport Mystery

Bizarre Underground Conspiracy Theory - Honorable Mention:

Denver, Colorado has an impressively large airport, and, some believe, an even more impressive series of underground tunnels. If they exist, these tunnels are (it is largely agreed) not home to aliens or fascists. A number of mysterious construction choices, murals and other objects have led some to theorize that such tunnels might be home to anything from a secret military base to a Masonic Temple.

Want More? Check Out These Great Related Articles:

Posted by Urbanist October 15th, 2007
7 Wonders, Architecture, Urban, Urban Images, Urban Videos, Urbanism
Comments: 65

Comments

Comment from Hi5 Codes
Time: October 15, 2007, 2:04 am

I wan’t to live in the hobbit homes! I think that would be so peaceful :).

Comment from Alex
Time: October 15, 2007, 9:13 am

Edinburgh, Scotland: On the history channel they have a show called Cities of the Underworld with an episode devoted to Edinburgh Scotland…. its a great watch

Comment from xen ix
Time: October 15, 2007, 10:03 am

I love these articles. Makes me wish I had too much money so I could explore some of these things full time.

Comment from Tanvir
Time: October 15, 2007, 10:50 am

Amazing what people can do when they come together. These pictures are amazing. I recently came across a website (http://singingrevolution.com) about Estonia’s Singing Revolution. An inspirational story of thousands of people coming together.

Comment from Henri Bergius
Time: October 15, 2007, 11:37 am

What, no Vardzia on the list?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardzia

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergie/309792787/in/set-72157594398130502/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergie/309799138/in/set-72157594398130502/

Comment from Dan
Time: October 15, 2007, 11:44 am

The bottom picture has the symbol of the Free Masons.

Comment from Ann Ames
Time: October 15, 2007, 11:53 am

The cylindrical tank with phototubes and scaffolding above the “Tokyo, Japan” story has nothing to do with mysterious cities: it’s the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in Kamioka, Japan. My husband is a physicist and did his Ph.D. on that experiment.

Comment from Logan
Time: October 15, 2007, 12:53 pm

Great Pictures, It sparked enough interest that I will now research a few of these a bit more.

Thanks!

Comment from Justin
Time: October 15, 2007, 12:54 pm

Very interesting, some very cool locations!

Comment from Russ @ bombay potatoes
Time: October 15, 2007, 1:57 pm

Nice pictures and comment. A little more about Seattle would be good, as would links to larger pictures. Nice though, thanks.

Comment from Denver Resident
Time: October 15, 2007, 2:33 pm

I live in and work for the City of Denver, and have family who work at Denver International Airport. There is nothing ’secret’ about anything underground there- it is simply the mechanized baggage system that didn’t work out so well in the beginning. I’ve been down there and they are just boring old tunnels.

Comment from femmme
Time: October 15, 2007, 2:43 pm

wow this stuff is unbelievable!

Comment from vasu
Time: October 15, 2007, 6:23 pm

Simply awesome!!.
Love them..

Comment from Dave Greiman
Time: October 15, 2007, 8:38 pm

Nice collection. Maybe add Kartchner Caverns by my hometown of Sierra Vista, AZ?

Comment from ZekeDMS
Time: October 15, 2007, 10:14 pm

I’ve worked at a few airports, and every one of them has had a very impressive series of underground tunnels. And admittedly creepy at points what with the long dark twisty tunnels and pipes.

Sadly, they’ve all lacked military application or freemasons, they’ve just had a lot of spare parts(so many carts!), and more conveyor belts than I ever knew existed on earth.

Comment from boris
Time: October 16, 2007, 1:18 am

OoYes

Comment from Piotr Misztal
Time: October 16, 2007, 6:46 am

Wieliczka was going to be used by the NAZIs as an airplane factory to escape allied bombing. They blasted out one of the larger rooms there with concentration camp labor. The facility was never actually used to produce airplanes as far as I know.

Polish resistance needed guns, mortars and mines… not airplanes. The allies controlled the sky at the time of the war when the resistance was most active. Stalin and Churchill just would not perform enough drops to help the resistance much.

Get your facts straight… this is awful.

BTW; The mine is awesome. Especially the “cathedral.” The oldest surviving statues are close to 1000 years old. Everything down there was carved by miners, not artists too!!!!

Comment from Bill Grok
Time: October 16, 2007, 7:40 am

We might one day be destined to these underground buildings and bunkers due to the ills of our financial system.

Comment from Rimfax
Time: October 16, 2007, 8:02 pm

You should add Ghadames to this list. While not technically underground, it is an ancient and almost completely covered city.

Comment from A drunkin explorer
Time: October 17, 2007, 7:07 pm

I was out just wandering around one night after having a few drinks and I found an semi submurged underground bunker in the side of a hill. It was about 18X10. I thought it was an abandoned bomb shelter because there were all these old bags filled with spam cans and bottles of water, soda, tissues and such. As I ripped through them I learned someone had obviously found this place before me because most all the supplys had been used or eaten. I couldn’t find a latter to climb back out and thought it cool enough to move some things around and sleep under an old sleeping bad that was in there. When I awoke the next morning I realized I wasn’t in an abandoned bombshelter but a industrial dumpster. What I thought was the hatch I climbed into was just were some one must have dropped something heavy atop the closed container lid and broken away a manhole sized portion. Just glad I didn’t eat/drink anything or get attacked by mice or rats.

Comment from B. Durbin
Time: October 17, 2007, 7:39 pm

Sacramento, California has the remains of an underground similar to that of Seattle’s. In the 1860s, repeated floods prompted the city fathers to require the city to be raised twelve feet. A few businesses chose to simple turn their second floor into their ground floor and convert their original floor to a basement, but most chose to raise their buildings. One hotel fell apart while it was being raised— with guests actually staying in it!

Unfortunately, large parts of the underground were lost to new construction. The announcement of limited-space tours during the annual Gold Rush Days sparked so much interest that there were fist fights over tickets. Alas, that has not translated into more readily available tours, but there are several locations in Old Sacramento where the original ground level is evident, and the tourist center has more info.

Comment from Anonymous
Time: October 18, 2007, 6:56 am

呵呵很神奇的画�?�

Comment from trapper
Time: October 18, 2007, 8:23 am

This cathedral made with recicled components and built completely by an old person is better than some of those wonders.

http://86400.es/2007/01/23/justo-gallego-y-la-catedral-de-la-virgen-del-pilar-en-mejorada-del-campo-la-otra-historia/

Comment from gordon
Time: October 18, 2007, 11:38 am

I’m always facinated by hidden things underground. It is great to see that some great photographers have made produced some really beautiful images of the spaces.

Comment from surgeandoj
Time: October 21, 2007, 12:45 am

the first picture related to the Tokyo underground tunnels is actually part of their advanced water treatment system. I agree with Ann, the last in the tokyo pictures is of a Neutrino detector (these are elusive super small particles emitted by the sun that usually just pass through everything in its way; the devices lining the wall are trying to catch the neutrinos as they react with the liquid that fills the chamber)

Comment from Montanalady
Time: October 27, 2007, 12:37 pm

It is funny I have just read 2 mysteries that took place in a couple of these underground cities. I had no idea they existed.

Comment from Anna-ENGLAND
Time: November 1, 2007, 9:01 am

My friend came over to visit England from Texas,we took a visit to Edinburgh,oh my those underground vaults are sooooo spooky,you feel an unseen presence all the time,and feel icy air on your face,I would not fancy spending a night down there in darkness it was bad enough in candle light,we also took a trip to Rosslyn chapel,I would recomend a visit to anyone,the carvings are wonderful,especially the apprentice pillar,we did the da vinci code trail,London ,Edinburgh,Paris wonderful trip

Comment from rsfeller
Time: November 2, 2007, 6:36 am

Great photos but you need captions for more of them. The stories run together and are inconsistent. Additionally, some are not what you claim to be but it’s hard to tell because of the organization!

Shawn

Comment from Izabael
Time: November 6, 2007, 12:45 pm

Beautiful! At first some I thought some of those were from some new Lord of the Rings game.

Comment from shadow
Time: November 7, 2007, 8:10 pm

japan secret underground. reminds me of the Japanese Anime Evangaleon.

Comment from Shakeiena
Time: December 22, 2007, 2:27 pm

This places are truely amazing i wud love to visit them they look so cool to go and explore.

Comment from CK Go Places
Time: December 29, 2007, 2:59 am

Very informative. Thanks for sharing. :)

Comment from alex booth
Time: January 26, 2008, 7:40 pm

i have been to the one in Poland and its awesome

Comment from Sporg
Time: January 28, 2008, 11:30 am

No mention of the super collider tunnel? I cant say Im surprised since it is used by the government for training exercises and most people are probably not aware of its existence. A larger portion of the tunnel was completed than claimed in publications about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider

Comment from KATENDE
Time: February 20, 2008, 2:37 am

this is really great just keep up the spirot

Comment from Colin
Time: March 5, 2008, 6:41 am

Thought I would add my thoughts to the list. How about the underground city beneath Beijing, China.

Beijings’s undgerground city.

Comment from Saim Baig
Time: April 5, 2008, 10:59 pm

Some of these are only seen in comic book stuff.But its nice to see that such structures exist in reality.