8 Mysterious Underground Cities https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ulR54WJgG9w

Derinkuyu Underground City is an ancient multilevel underground city in the

Derinkuyu district in Nevsehir Province, Turkey.
1. Derinkuyu
ancient= very old underground= belowground landscape = scenery pockmarked having holes or
pits labyrinthine= intricate and confusing shafts= long vertical passage oil presses= a device
for extracting oil winery= a place where wine is made threatened= endangered sealed off=
blocked off frescoes= a painting on a wall chapels=church Despite= regardless of, = stumbled
upon= find by chance

The volcanic rock landscape of Turkey’s Cappadocia region is pockmarked with several different
underground cities, but perhaps none is as vast or as impressive as Derinkuyu. This labyrinthine
complex dates to around the 8th century B.C. and was most likely built to serve as a refuge
during periods of war and invasion. With this in mind, its 18-story interior was a self-contained
metropolis that included ventilation shafts, wells, kitchens, schoolrooms, oil presses, a
bathhouse, a winery and living space for some 20,000 people.

When threatened by attack, each level of the city could be sealed off behind a collection of
monolithic stone doors. Historians believe that the Hittites or the Phrygians were among
Derinkuyu’s earliest builders, but it was later occupied and expanded by a host of other groups

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including Byzantine-era Christians, who left behind a collection of underground frescoes and
chapels. Despite its long history, the city wasn’t rediscovered until the 1960s, when a local man
stumbled upon some its tunnels while renovating his home.

2. Naours

A tourist takes a picture inside the Naours underground city.

hidden =difficult to find forested = covered with forest plateau = flat highland quarry = a mine
for stone peak = the highest stage of development

Located in northern France, the underground city of Naours includes two miles of tunnels and
more than 300 man-made rooms—all of them hidden some 100 feet beneath a forested plateau.
The site began its life around the third century A.D. 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
and invasions of the Middle Ages. At its peak, it had enough room for 3,000 inhabitants and
included its own chapels, stables, wells and bakeries.

The Naours caves were later sealed off for decades before being reopened in the 19th century
as a tourist attraction. They became a popular sightseeing spot during World War I, and modern
visitors can still see more than 2,000 pieces of graffiti left behind by Allied soldiers, many of
whom fought nearby at the Battle of the Somme.

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3. Wieliczka Salt Mine

Chapel in the cathedral carved out of the rock salt in Wieliczka salt mine.

outskirts = outsde the city carved = cut or engraved warren = a series of connected
underground tunnels stunning =commanding attention bas reliefs= a sculpture not totally free of
the background touts = boasts

Also known as the “Underground Salt Cathedral,” Poland’s Wieliczka Salt Mine is a massive
subterranean complex of rooms, passageways and statues located on the outskirts of Krakow.
The site dates to the 1200s, when miners first descended beneath the earth’s surface to find
rock salt. In the centuries that followed, they slowly carved the mine into a warren of galleries
and tunnels that extended more than 1,000 feet underground.

When they weren’t digging for “white gold,” the workers also used the mine’s salt crystal
deposits to build a stunning collection of chapels, chandeliers, statues and, including a detailed
replica of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The Wieliczka mine stopped producing salt in 2007
after some 700 years in operation, but it remains a popular tourist attraction in Poland. It’s also
home to a health spa that touts the therapeutic properties of the mine’s salt-rich microclimate.

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4. Lalibela

Low angle view of the orthodox rock-hewn church of Saint George, Lalibela.
Lalibela is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

hewn =cut or shaped hollowed out= remove the interior of trench= long ditch cut in the ground
network =an interconnected system of things

In the 12th century A.D., a devout king ordered the construction of 11 eye-catching Christian
churches in the Ethiopian village of Lalibela. This “New Jerusalem” is notable for having been
fashioned from the top down: all of its churches were hewn from volcanic rock below the earth’s
surface then hollowed out, giving them the appearance of having grown directly out of the
ground.

The most iconic building is the cross-shaped Church of Saint George, which was cut from a
monolithic slice of stone inside a trench 100 feet deep. It was then connected to the rest of
the complex via a network of underground passageways, hidden caves and catacombs. Legend
has it that the construction of Lalibela took just 24 years, but many historians believe it was
actually completed in phases over several centuries. The village is now considered a sacred site
for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and its subterranean places of worship continue to draw as
many as 100,000 pilgrims each year.

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5. Beijing Underground City

A mural dedicated to the workers who dug the tunnels that later became the
Beijing Underground City in Beijing, China.

fallout-proofed = protected from radioactive dust after a nuclear explosion granaries = a

storehouse for grain bunker = a reinforced underground shelter

In the 1960s and 70s, as the threat of nuclear war loomed, the Chinese government ordered
the construction of a mammoth fallout shelter beneath their capital of Beijing. Also known as
Dixia Cheng, the hand-dug site was supposedly capable of safeguarding around one million people
for up to four months. It consisted of fallout-proofed rooms and tunnels that snaked their way
underground over an area of several dozen square miles.

Certain passageways were reportedly large enough for tanks to pass through, while other
housed purpose-built schools, hospitals, granaries and restaurants. There was even a skating
rink and a 1,000-seat movie theater. While the Beijing bunker was never put to use, its decaying
tunnels still exist today, hidden beneath the city’s homes and businesses. Most are sealed off,
but they were briefly opened as a tourist attraction in the early 2000s.

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6. Petra

A classic view of El Deir, The Monastery in Petra.

hand-chiseled = cut out by hand sandstone = in Portuguese arenito dazzling = amazingly

impressive lurk = Lie in wait

Famed for its cameo in the film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” Petra is an ancient
caravan city tucked away in the mountains of southern Jordan. The site has been inhabited
since prehistory, but it reached its peak some 2,000 years ago, when the ancient Nabataeans
hand-chiseled the surrounding sandstone hillsides into a dazzling collection of tombs, banquet
halls and temples.

One of the most exquisite edifices is Al Khazneh, or “the Treasury,” which includes an
ornamental façade that extends 130 feet up a rock face. Petra may have been home to 20,000
people at its height, but it was later abandoned sometime around the seventh century A.D. and
wasn’t known to Europeans until the 1800s. Excavations at the site are still ongoing today, and
it’s believed that the vast majority of its ruins may still lurk underground.

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7. Orvieto

Underground Below The City Of Orvieto, Italy.

burrowed =tunneled bluff =a high steep bank cisterns = an underground tank for storing
rainwater roosts = a shelter with perches for birds

The Italian hilltop town of Orvieto is known for its white wines and picturesque architecture,
but its most mysterious wonders lie underground. Beginning with the ancient Etruscans,
generations of locals burrowed their way deep into the volcanic rock bluff on which the city was
originally built. The subterranean maze was first carved to build wells and cisterns, but over the
centuries it grew to include more than 1,200 interlocking tunnels, grottoes, and galleries.

Some chambers include the remnants of Etruscan-era sanctuaries and medieval olive presses,
while others show signs of having been used as storage places for wine or roosts for pigeons—a
common local delicacy. Orvieto’s underground city was also frequently employed as a hiding place
during times of strife. As recently as World War II, people were still using certain sections as
bomb shelters.

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8. Burlington

The GPO exchange at the Central Government War Headquarters aka “Burlington.”

In the event of a Cold War-era nuclear strike, the most important members of the British
government would have retreated to a 35-acre underground complex located 100 feet beneath
the village of Corsham. This “Burlington Bunker,” as it was codenamed, was first built in the
1950s from a series of existing tunnels and stone quarries. It contained office spaces,
cafeterias, a telephone exchange, medical facilities and sleeping quarters—all of it designed to
keep the British Prime Minister and some 4,000 other key government personnel alive during an
emergency. There was even an in-house BBC studio that the PM could use to address the public.
While never put into active use, the Burlington facility remained partially operational until 2004,
when it was finally decommissioned and declassified.

Match the words to their synonyms

1. landscape A. sculpted
2. threatened B. sensational
3. stumble upon C. concealed
4. hidden D. discover
5. outskirts E. endangered
6. stunning F. edge
7. hewn G. scenery

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Derinkuya
How many levels does Derinkuya have?
How was it discovered?
Naours
Why were the Naours tunnels built or expanded from a Roman quarry?
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Besides salt, what can you find in the Wieliczka Salt mine?
Lalibela
What type of building do you find at Lalibela? How many are there?
Beijing Underground City
Why did the Chinese government build the Beijing Underground City?
Petra
How long after Petra was abandoned in the 7th century was it discovered by
Europeans?
Orvieto
Orvieto was first carved to store rain water, but over centuries it included other
uses. What were they?
Burlington
Why was the Burlington Bunker built, and who was it planned to be used for?

Derinkuyu: Mysterious
underground city in
Turkey found in man’s
basement.
A basement renovation
project led to the
archaeological discovery
of a lifetime: the
Derinkuyu Underground
City, which housed
20,000 people.

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