nderneath the surface, there’s an entire world of homes, businesses, stores, churches, even sports complexes hidden out of sight. And it’s nothing new – humans have been living underground from the beginning of civilization. And with the weather becoming more extreme, it could be our future. Today let’s talk about the surprisingly large number of people who live underground.
TRANSCRIPT:
In the classic sci-fi novel, The Time Machine, by HG Wells, our hero travels forward in time to the year 802,701, where he finds that humanity has split into two species, the Eloi (ee-loy), a gentle, childlike race of people who don’t seem capable of negative emotions, and a race of monstrous subterranean ghouls named the Morlocks that come out at night to feed on the Eloi.
And that’s something of a trope in literature. The underground world represents darkness and evil, it’s associated with death and burial, even hell. So of course any people or creatures that come out of that place are depicted as more feral, lawless, or animalistic.
So what does it say about us that we kinda came out of that place?
Some of our earliest dwellings were in caves, some of which stretched far underground. And it worked. It was a way to escape the elements, avoid predators, defend ourselves from enemies, and enjoy the comfort of a tight-knit community. Not to mention the walls are excellent for drawing on.
And while our ability to construct habitats for all those purposes has advanced massively over the hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve never really stopped going underground.
In fact… there could be someone living underneath you right now…
Today, most underground places are used for military operations. Like, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania, and the Chiashan Air Force Base in Taiwan.
That could be a whole video of its own, but that’s not what I want to focus on today. I want to talk about places where people actually live and do business… and all the various reasons they choose to do so.
I’m breaking them down into several categories:
- Ancient or Historical Sites
- Homeless/squatter communities
- Retail/work space
- Legal, incorporated underground city
- Underground cities of the future
Ancient Cities
Let’s start with some ancient cities. Some of which have been abandoned and lost to time, and some that found a new purpose in modern times. Sometimes even for illegal activities.
Usually these ancient cities popped up…. Or… popped down? Can you pop up underground? Either way, these cities arose… or descended?
Anyway, they were usually people hiding from persecution.
Like, take Derinkuyu in Cappadocia, Turkey, for example.
It’s one of the world’s largest and deepest cities. The Hittites originally built it in the eighth century BCE. They were followed by the Phrygians who further developed it before the Byzantines and Christians expanded it in the seventh and eighth centuries AD. So it goes back a bit.
Derinkuyu is a network of tunnels and rooms spread out over 18 levels. It goes down to 85 meters. You could almost fit the Statue of Liberty into Derinkuyu.
The city was designed to offer protection and shelter to the local population during war times or when they were persecuted.
It has a large storage area for food and supplies and a water supply system that features channels and wells.
It’s estimated that it could house up to 20,000 people.
Another ancient underground city is the Napoli Sotterranea in Naples, Italy, where it spreads out over 80 kilometers under the city’s streets.
It’s more than 2,400 years old. The Greeks first created it and later the Romans expanded it and used it as a storage area and water source.
But during the 17th and 18th centuries, criminals used it as a black-market hub, moving all sorts of illegal goods through the tunnels.
Later in World War II, the residents of Naples used it as a shelter from enemy bombs.
One of the underground city’s most popular attractions is the Bourbon Tunnel. It’s a series of tunnels built in the 19th century during King Ferdinand’s reign.
It was a way for the Royal Palace to connect with the military barracks so people could transport supplies between the two.
And this one is kinda huge, the Napoli Sotterranea could house up to 500,000 people.
Another underground city that’s not quite so old is Guanajuato in central Mexico.
It’s also known as Los Túneles de Guanajuato, and it was built in the 16th century as a way to transport silver from mines to smelting factories.
In the 19th century, revolutionaries during the Mexican War of Independence used the tunnels as hideouts.
The Museo de las Momias, or Museum of the Mummies, is one of the tunnels’ most popular sites for tourists.
It houses a collection of naturally mummified bodies found in a nearby cemetery in the 1800s.
Further north in Canada there’s an underground city beneath the town of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan.
It was originally built in the early 1900s to provide cooling and heating to the city’s downtown buildings. But they really saw a lot of use in the 1920s.
When Prohibition went into effect in the United States, it opened up a lucrative opportunity for the enterprising smuggler to move Canadian alcohol across the border. So they used the tunnels to move their product around unnoticed.
Today, the tunnels still provide cooling, heating, and other services to the aboveground city buildings. But it’s thought that they could house up to 1000 people.
Most of these places are now tourist attractions for the most part. But at one time, people did live in there. Usually to escape persecution or because they had dropped out of society for one reason or another.
And in some places today, that’s still the case.
Homeless/Squatter Communities
Like, in Las Vegas there’s an estimated 1,500 people living in the 600 miles of tunnels under the city.
Then you have New York City, where it’s believed that more than 2,000 people live underground.
These people often live in the forgotten parts of the city’s subway system. This practice started around the Great Depression.
By the way, New York subway tunnel entrances are easy to get into. But, it’s illegal to enter them.
The people who live down there are often marred by drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness is prevalent, obviously, but some are just people who have hit some hard times. Some whole families.
And just like in any other community, there’s a hierarchy for those who live underground in New York.
There’s a whole world down there that’s often reflective of what’s happening above ground but at a much more dangerous degree.
There have been some great documentaries made about the “mole people” as they’re called, and I kind of find it fascinating how groups of people will organize and create communities and rules and structures that give a sense of order. It makes me think of the Kowloon Walled City, like people will make it work, even in crazy circumstances.
But it’s not always gritty and grime underground, some spaces bring out the glitz and glamour.
Retail/Work Space
Take, for example, Shinjuku Subnade, an underground shopping mall under the Shinjuku neighborhood in Tokyo.
It opened in 1973 to help curb traffic congestion and offer retail space for the city’s growing population.
It’s one of the world’s largest shopping centers, offering hundreds of retail outlets and restaurants across multiple levels.
It also features movie theaters, gaming arcades, and karaoke bars. It’s like they moved downtown Vegas underground.
But the Subnade is just retail and food. No people live there, that we know of.
Over in Montreal, Canada, there’s RÉSO. It’s a network of buildings and tunnels spreading 32 kilometers underneath the streets that attracts millions of visitors every year. And it’s used by 500,000 people every day.
RÉSO was developed in the 1960s as a solution to winter weather conditions but has since turned into a huge tourist attraction and a popular place to eat and shop, for both visitors and locals.
The network features restaurants, retail space, movie theaters, nightclubs, an ice skating rink, performance spaces, and a library.
It also houses a huge art collection of more than 100 works of art. There’s even an annual 5K run throughout the tunnels.
Over in Montreal, Canada, there’s RÉSO. It’s a network of buildings and tunnels spreading 32 kilometers underneath the streets that attracts millions of visitors every year. And it’s used by 500,000 people every day.
RÉSO was developed in the 1960s as a solution to winter weather conditions but has since turned into a huge tourist attraction and a popular place to eat and shop, for both visitors and locals.
The network features restaurants, retail space, movie theaters, nightclubs, an ice skating rink, performance spaces, and a library.
It also houses a huge art collection of more than 100 works of art. There’s even an annual 5K run throughout the tunnels.
Another massive shopping center can be found underground in Helsinki, Finland.
Called the Helsingfors underjordiska, it’s 300,000 square meters in size and features shopping centers, restaurants, a hockey rink, a go-kart track, a swimming pool, and a church.
The underground city uses geothermal heating to help reduce energy consumption and lower carbon emissions.
All of this was planned and built in case the country went to war with Russia, so the underground space could house around 600,000 people.
Not all of the spaces are open to the public, but the church there does draw around half a million tourists each year. So, after seeing that, maybe take a swim or race around a go-kart track.
The Beijing Underground City, or Dixia Cheng, in China is a place also built out of fear of war with Russia.
China and Russia had been having border spats going back hundreds of years but during the Cold War, Chairman Mao wasn’t taking any chances.
So he made as part of his glorious cultural revolution, the building of an underground city a major priority.
Construction began in the 1970s, and it was every citizen’s duty to help out. Much of it was dug out by hand, by both adults and children.
It eventually spread over 52 square miles and featured bomb shelters, factories, schools, retail shops, movie theaters, and even a skating rink.
And the whole thing was entered through secret passages in shops above town, some of which had maps on the walls in invisible ink so only the locals who were in the know would be able to read it.
It was designed to be capable of housing 300,000 people for 4 months. But once the Soviet Union fell apart, they stopped expanding and maintaining it.
It eventually was opened for tourists, but interestingly only foreign tourists, Chinese citizens weren’t allowed in.
When the Olympics were held in Beijing in 2008, the city was massively renovated and many of the shops that had entrances were destroyed.
At this point most of Dixia Cheng has been forgotten, so many think it may never reopen. And of course since it’s abandonment, there have been a lot of homeless that have moved in, some say thousands live down there right now.
Incorporated Cities
But if you want to talk about a full-on, legal, incorporated city that’s almost entirely underground, there’s really one you’ve gotta talk about. That’s Coober Pedy, Australia.
The town is located 950 kilometers northwest of Adelaide. A boy discovered opals there in 1915, and a settlement and mining operation was soon established.
Fun fact, the name “Coober Pedy” is a corruption of the Aboriginal phrase “kupa piti,” which means “water hole” or “white man in a hole.”
Coober Pedy was designated as a town in 1960.
Temperatures there can get up to 52 degrees Celsius. That’s about 125 degrees Fahrenheit for you Fahrenheit-heads.
So, because of that insane heat, the miners and early residents built their houses underground. And that was a tradition that just stuck as it grew.
It’s not entirely underground, it’s not like you can’t see it if you’re above ground, but most of the town is down there, including homes, businesses, churches, hotels, among other buildings. Around 3,500 people live in… I’m sorry, UNDER Coober Pedy.
Of course their reasoning for going underground – the extreme heat – is only expected to get worse. So there may be some more Coober Pedy’s in our future.
In fact, urban planners are already working on them.
Underground Cities Of The Future
For example, there’s the Earthscraper in Mexico City. This concept from BNKR Arquitectura is basically an inverted skyscraper, descending 65 stories below ground in the city’s main square.
It’s shaped like an upside down pyramid in homage to the Aztec pyramids but it also creates an open central space, which provides daylight for those living or working in the pyramid, and at the top the whole thing is covered by a glass ceiling at the surface that fills the city square.
It’s a pretty cool idea, but seems like one crazy guy with a car bomb could ruin a lot of people’s days.
Another exciting project is the Lowline in New York City. The plan was for it to become the world’s first underground park.
They had previously turned an elevated train line into a park and called it the Hi Line, so this is the Low Line, they want to do the same thing to an old underground trolley station.
The specific station is the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
A big part of this project has been designing and testing a new kind of lighting system they call a “remote skylight” that will collect light from the surface in these clusters of parabolic receptors that concentrate the light and send it through fiber optic cables to the fixtures underground.
Supposedly it’s so bright that they can grow plants and trees in the park and because it’s natural light, it feels like sunlight.
It was designed by James Ramsey, and won some awards for innovation and the project got a lot of attention in the media and in the community but unfortunately has been stalled for a few years now due to lack of funds.
Since we’re talking science, Singapore has a plan to build an Underground Science City.
It’s exactly what it sounds like. A city of research labs and offices for up to 4,200 scientists, researchers, and professionals.
If it happens, it’ll be under Kent Ridge Park below Science Parks 1, 2, and 3. It would be built in sedimentary rock that’s mainly sandstone. The cavern would take up around 400 to 500 square meters.
Which is fitting because we came from caverns and caves. It was where we first started to innovate.
Just hope this isn’t where we turn into Morlocks.
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