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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.
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.
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.
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, 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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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79 Comments
October 15th, 2007 at 2:04 am
I wan’t to live in the hobbit homes! I think that would be so peaceful :).
October 15th, 2007 at 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
October 15th, 2007 at 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.
October 15th, 2007 at 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.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:37 am
What, no Vardzia on the list?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardzia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b.....398130502/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b.....398130502/
October 15th, 2007 at 11:44 am
The bottom picture has the symbol of the Free Masons.
October 15th, 2007 at 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.
October 15th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Great Pictures, It sparked enough interest that I will now research a few of these a bit more.
Thanks!
October 15th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Very interesting, some very cool locations!
October 15th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Nice pictures and comment. A little more about Seattle would be good, as would links to larger pictures. Nice though, thanks.
October 15th, 2007 at 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.
October 15th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
wow this stuff is unbelievable!
October 15th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Simply awesome!!.
Love them..
October 15th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Nice collection. Maybe add Kartchner Caverns by my hometown of Sierra Vista, AZ?
October 15th, 2007 at 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.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:18 am
OoYes
October 16th, 2007 at 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!!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 7:40 am
We might one day be destined to these underground buildings and bunkers due to the ills of our financial system.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
You should add Ghadames to this list. While not technically underground, it is an ancient and almost completely covered city.
October 17th, 2007 at 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.
October 17th, 2007 at 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.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:56 am
呵呵 很神奇的çâ€Â»Ã©?¢
October 18th, 2007 at 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/jus.....-historia/
October 18th, 2007 at 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.
October 21st, 2007 at 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)
October 27th, 2007 at 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.
November 1st, 2007 at 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
November 2nd, 2007 at 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
November 6th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Beautiful! At first some I thought some of those were from some new Lord of the Rings game.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
japan secret underground. reminds me of the Japanese Anime Evangaleon.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
This places are truely amazing i wud love to visit them they look so cool to go and explore.
December 29th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Very informative. Thanks for sharing. :)
January 26th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
i have been to the one in Poland and its awesome
January 28th, 2008 at 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/S.....r_Collider
February 20th, 2008 at 2:37 am
this is really great just keep up the spirot
March 5th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Thought I would add my thoughts to the list. How about the underground city beneath Beijing, China.
Beijings’s undgerground city.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Some of these are only seen in comic book stuff.But its nice to see that such structures exist in reality.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:05 am
those photos of tunnels in Japan are actually flood tunnels, designed to take flood water away from the city
July 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I wish i could live in some of those places!!!!!!!
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
Poor guys in Kapadokya, ignoring everything about the catholic history of this country :
- devil music
- one guy sitting on an altar of the 5th century !!! Such a lack of respect !!!
Yes there is not only houses but all the catechism in thousands of painting from the 2nd to the 7th century!
This is the country of Saint John Chrysostome (Father of the Church), Saint Basile of Césarée and his brother Saint Gregory of Nysse (Father of the Church too), and S. Peter of Sebaste all these 3 were sons of Saint Amelie.
Poor, very poor youth, ignoring such b_a_b_a !!!
Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing !
November 26th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
10xcsn
my panties have been filling with pooder, almost 3 pounds
of dookie already.
jUSST YA WAIT TILL CHRISTMAS, MY PANTIES WILL STINK UP ALL THOSE
PRETTY UNPANTS CITIES WE JUST SAH
November 26th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I agree, the man shoulda pooped on that al atar for saint john(toilet) crystal flush
BAD NO REPSECT
10XCSN
November 26th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
deviled music?
is that like deviled eggs or deviled ham or devils food cake?
Or is this just devil $hit bake?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am
Although these comments are quickly going downhill, for anybody reading, I’d also recommend the Chislehurst Caves, a few miles east of London: http://www.chislehurstcaves.co.uk - they are open to the public for guided tours (lit by your own little gas lamp!) and are well worth a visit. The Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California are also quite interesting. Kind of a miniature Coober Pedy: http://www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com
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