▲Though Derinkuyu is home to the only cruciform church, there are an estimated 150 churches and several monasteries in Cappadocia.

▲The dugouts and mines exist alongside homes, shops, restaurants, hotels, museums, churches, a casino, a gift shop, and even a local pub.

▲Located in central Turkey, the Cappadocia region is home to 36 underground cities! At a depth of approximately 85 m (280 ft), Derinkuyu is the deepest.

▲This small, underground town in Outback South Australia, known as the "opal capital of the world," houses around 1,600 residents below the surface.

▲In case of any threat, each level of the city could be sealed off using monolithic stone doors.

▲This maze-like city dates back to around the 8th century BCE and was a formidable defense against attack and invasion.

▲The city had everything for a civilization, including shops, living quarters, schools, ventilation shafts, wells, kitchens, oil presses, a bathhouse, storage rooms, and even primitive wineries.

▲The city was discovered in 1963, when a local man reportedly stumbled upon some tunnels while renovating his home. It opened to the public two years later, though less than half is actually accessible.

▲Petra is also known for its cameo in the film 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.'

▲One of the most exquisite carvings is Al-Khazneh, or “the Treasury,” which features an ornamental facade that reaches 130 ft (40 m) up a rock face.

▲The ancient Nabataeans hand-chiseled the sandstone hillsides into an impressive collection of rooms, tombs, halls, and temples.

▲The subterranean dwelling was abandoned sometime around the 7th century CE, but it wasn't discovered by Europeans until the 1800s.

▲Located in southern Tunisia is a small city made up of buildings called "troglodyte," or "cave-dweller" structures.

▲Excavators believe that the vast majority of Petra's ruins may still lurk underground.

▲An ancient caravan city tucked away in the mountains of southern Jordan, Petra may have once been home to 40,000 people at its peak about 2,000 years ago.

▲The underground city was also featured in 'Attack of the Clones.'

▲Though the underground complex was only rediscovered in 1967, it had already become quite famous.

▲Apart from the opal mines, Coober Pedy's homes were built underground to escape the scorching heat and to hide from the dingoes that roam the area.

▲The town, which has one of the few underground churches in the world, produces more than 80% of the world’s opals.

▲Matmata's Hotel Sidi Driss was used in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ as Luke Skywalker’s childhood home on Tatooine.

▲Over 2,000 inhabitants live there full-time.

▲The buildings were created by digging a big pit and carving out artificial cave walls to make a living space.

▲Despite its hard-working reputation, the town is also a cozy and friendly place to live.

▲Made up of seven underground levels, this city once housed up to 20,000 people.

▲Sassi di Matera, which means "stones of Matera," is the area of prehistoric cave dwellings in the southern Italian city of Matera.

▲The underground habitation was one of the first settlements of Italy, going back as early as 10,000 BCE.

▲The houses, as this historical replica shows, are dug into the calcareous rock itself.

▲Soon, the low levels of light and high concentration of disease began to create slum-like conditions, and the residents struggled in poverty.

▲Between 1953 and 1968, the cave-dwellers were moved into modern housing, but a more recent spike in tourism, and the flourishing of Matera's artistic community, have led to a reclamation of the land.

▲Somewhat surprisingly, people still lived in the bare caves well into the 20th century—living with no access to amenities and very little access to sun.

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At its peak, Naours had enough room for 3,000 residents, and could provide many comforts like a chapel, stables, wells, and bakeries.

The caves were sealed off for decades before being reopened in the 19th century as a tourist attraction. Visitors are treated to hundreds of pieces of graffiti left behind by Allied soldiers.

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Two miles of tunnels and more than 300 man-made rooms rest some 30 m (100 ft) beneath a forested plateau in northern France.

The site was built around the third century CE as part of a Roman quarry, but it was later expanded into a subterranean village after locals began using it as a hiding place during the wars of the Middle Ages.

▲Hidden entrances, ancient tunnels, and complex histories lurk beneath earth's surface, teeming with tales of a life that few people know much about. Many underground paths or malls claim to be cities, but check out this gallery to see the few real underground habitations where people have actually carried out their lives.

Impressive underground cities where people actually lived

You'll be surprised at what you can do with a hole in the ground

25/09/24 por StarsInsider

TRAVEL Curiosity

Hidden entrances, ancient tunnels, and complex histories lurk beneath earth's surface, teeming with tales of a life that few people know much about. Many underground paths or malls claim to be cities, but check out this gallery to see the few real underground habitations where people have actually carried out their lives.