Underground city

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

An underground city is a series of linked

cisterns
or drainage channels; or several of these. Underground cities may be currently active modern creations or they may be historic including ancient sites, some of which may be all or partially open to the public.

The term may also refer to a network of tunnels that connects buildings beneath street level that may house office blocks, shopping centres, metro stations, theatres, and other attractions. These passages can usually be accessed through the public space of any of the buildings connecting to them, and sometimes have separate entries as well. This latter definition encompasses many modern structures, whereas the former more generally covers tunnel systems from ancient times to the present day.

Underground cities are especially functional in cities with very cold or hot climates, because they permit activities to be comfortably accessible year round without regard to the weather. Underground cities are similar in nature to skyway systems and may include some buildings linked by skyways or above-ground corridors rather than underground. Some cities also have tunnels that have been abandoned.[1][2][3]

Asia

China

Hong Kong

Many

shopping malls in the area above. The stations themselves house a number of retail shops. Notable examples are the CentralHong Kong stations and the Tsim Sha TsuiEast Tsim Sha Tsui stations. Only rarely are there not any shops. Additional underground networks have been proposed for Causeway Bay in 2006 and in Kwun Tong under Hoi Yuen Road in 2010. As of 2014, studies are underway for underground networks in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Park, Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, Happy Valley, Admiralty, Wan Chai and Hong Kong Park. In 2017, The Development Bureau announced that two underground streets will be constructed, which would connect San Po Kong, Kai Tak station and Sung Wong Toi station
.

Iran

Historical underground cities of Persia include Samen, Nushabad, and Kariz.

  • Kish: an underground city by the name of Hidden Pearl was constructed of roads interlinked 20 meters (66 ft.) under the ground. Shops and restaurants are planned to be built.
  • Tehran: Tehran has made a series of underground pathways in and around Vali-e Asr Metro Station and is in planning stage to increase commercial activity in newly built buildings in the central part of the city. The priorities for future development are expansion of underground connections around Haft-e Tir Metro Station and Meydan-e Vali-e Asr Metro Station.[9]
  • Isfahan: with the completion of Imam Hosein Metro Station, and Jahan Nama Complex, and their eventual underground connection, there would be an underground complex of a length of 300 m formed in Isfahan downtown area. Also, not underground per se, with Imam Ali Square's street network being dug underground and a large open space plaza being constructed on the top, the plaza is connected through a series of covered bazaar pathways of a length exceeding 4 km, connecting it to Naqsh-e Jahan Square.
  • Nushabad: Nushabad has an underground city that served as a refuge during wars.

Japan

Shiodome City Center underground in Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Tenjin Underground City in Chūō-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Jordan

Jordan boasts the city of Petra—"rose-red city, half as old as time"—carved from the living rock.

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

An underground mall in Taipei connecting two Taipei Metro stations

Taipei has underground streets connecting two or more metro stations. In addition, there is a large underground shopping mall near the main train station.

Turkey

  • Cappadocia contains several historical underground cities carved out of unusual geological formations formed via the eruptions of ancient volcanoes. The cities were initially inhabited by the Hittites, then later by early Christians as hiding places. They are now archeological and tourist sites but are not generally occupied (see Kaymakli Underground City, Derinkuyu underground city, Özkonak Underground City, Mazı Underground City). The latest large underground city was discovered in 2007 in Gaziemir, Güzelyurt. It was a stopover on the Silk Road, allowing travelers and their camels to rest in safety underground, in a 'fortress' equivalent to a modern hotel.
underground city in Derinkuyu, one of the largest underground complexes in Cappadocia
. There are few artifacts left from the original builders, mainly just large rocks that were used to block the passage for intruders. Most of the "cities" are corridors, but some places there are rooms large enough to live in, and some rooms that have the cross-like shape of a church, which is probably exactly what they were.
  • Istanbul boasts the Roman cisterns, built 2,000 years ago for water storage. It is now a tourist attraction.

Australia

Sydney has a series of underground shopping malls around the Town Hall underground station. The tunnels run south to the George Street cinema district, west under the town hall, and north to Pitt Street Mall through the Queen Victoria Building. The northern branch links Queen Victoria Building with Galleries Victoria, Sydney Central Plaza (which in turn links underground to Westfield Sydney and internally above ground to Centrepoint, Imperial Arcade, Skygarden, Glasshouse and 25 Martin Place). The linked centres run for over 3 km (2 mi). In 2005, Westfield Corporation submitted a development application to link Sydney Central Plaza underground with 3 other properties on Pitt Street Mall and extend the tunnel network by a further 500 m (1,640 ft) or more.

Perth has a small network of underground shopping malls running from the St Georges Terrace entrance to Trinity Arcade to Murray Street Mall.

The small town of Coober Pedy in northern South Australia has numerous underground residences and other facilities. The area was and is extensively mined for opal, and the settlers lived underground to escape the scorching daytime heat, often exceeding 40 °C (104 °F).

Melbourne is said to have the largest underground tunnel system in the world spanning over 1500km, with the clandestine group known as the Cave Clan who meet regularly to explore, vandalise, socialise and map out this network. The vast majority of these tunnels are decommissioned or for stormwater purposes.[11]

Europe

Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Skenderija is a cultural, sports and trade center located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the area of 70,000 square meters there are multipurpose halls for various sports, concert and cultural venues, and trade areas above ground including square. Underground is a modern shopping center "Privredni grad" (English: Commercial City) with numerous confectionery shops, restaurants, coffee bars and other spaces.[12][13]
  • The Sarajevo Tunnel (Serbo-Croatian: Sarajevski tunel / Сарајевски тунел), also known as Tunel spasa (Тунел спаса, English: Tunnel of salvation) and Tunnel of Hope, was a tunnel constructed between March and June 1993 during the Siege of Sarajevo in the midst of the Bosnian War.

Croatia

Finland

Helsinki Central railway station

France

  • Paris:
    • The
      urban explorers
      , and venues for unauthorized cultural activities.
    • CNIT
      , but enabling access to many buildings of the district.
    • The
      River Seine.[19]
  • Naours: 33 metres (108 ft) below the Picardy village of Naours (between Doullens and Amiens), the 28 galleries (2,000 metres (6,562 ft) long) of an ancient limestone quarry (exploited since the 3rd century c.e.) have long been used as shelter by the population seeking refuge from invaders. Occupied by the Triple Entente forces during WWI, and then used as headquarters by the German Army during the WWII occupation of France, the galleries are now open to visitors.
  • Arras: during World War I, the French and British Army built a tunnel system (boves) based upon the already existing adits from a formerly used quarry. Scots and Englishmen used the quarry below the quarter Saint-Sauveur and called it "Glasgow", "Manchester" and "Liverpool". The New Zealand Army (bonded with the British Army) used the quarry for constructing another tunnel system below the quarter Ronville and called it "Wellington", "Auckland" and "Nelson".[20] Soldiers from these armed forces hid in the tunnels for several days. On April 9, 1917, 5:30 am, 24,000 soldiers sortied from there to encounter German troops.[21]

Germany

  • Berlin: several buildings on the east side of Friedrichstraße, from Quartier 205 (Friedrichstraße 70) northwards up to Galerie Lafayette are connected to each other. Businesses are on both sides of the underground street so that it appears to be inside a building all the time, even when it crosses Taubenstraße underground.
Extensive underground bunkers still exist all throughout the city centre, although they are largely sealed off and closed to the public.
All of the buildings at the large Charité Virchow campus are connected via a system of spacious tunnels. In addition to employee use, particularly during inclement weather, there is also a rudimentary robotic system via which mail and packages are delivered across campus.
  • Frankfurt am Main
    : underground shopping malls, called 'B-Ebene' in Frankfurt, of considerable size are found at Hauptbahnhof (central station) and Hauptwache.
  • Jungfernstieg
    and Rathaus subway stations and several entrances are connected by pedestrian tunnels, some of them contain shops. There is a direct access to the Europapassage shopping mall.
  • Munich: underground shopping mall at Karlsplatz/Stachus. This combines the underpass that leads to the pedestrian area and the entry to the subway system.
  • Stuttgart: there is a large underground shopping mall (Klettpassage) connecting the Hauptbahnhof (central station) with the main shopping street, the Königstraße.

Greece

In

Metro project.[22]

Italy

Netherlands

In general, many large railway stations house underground hallways featuring shops, restaurants, banks and money exchange offices. A striking example of such stations would be the main hallway of the

Amsterdam central station, which connects to the city's metro system
, although due to renovation and re-building it was temporarily (2012–2015) not possible to walk from the subway to the train station without going outside.

  • Maastricht: originally a casemate, the kazematten of Maastricht form a 14 km (9 mi) long network of tunnels underneath the western part of the city.[23] This tunnel network has mainly been used for military purposes. The main construction period of these tunnels lasted from 1575 to 1825.[23] The newest sections of the tunnel network were dug as late as the middle 20th century, built in the Cold War as a shelter for citizens in the event of a nuclear strike on the city.[24]
  • Caves of Maastricht are a far more extensive, system of tunnels with a length over 200 km (124 mi) and 20,000 individual corridors lies just west of Maastricht; (Dutch: Grotten van Maastricht).[25] These man-made 'caves' were used as Marl quarries from the 13th century onwards.[26] In World War II, these caves were used to hide large quantities of paintings from the Germans, even including the Nachtwacht.[27] In 1944, construction started on a large public shelter that could have housed 45,000 persons in these caves. The project never saw its completion due to the liberation of Maastricht in the fall of the same year.[28]

Poland

  • Centrum LIM skyscraper.[29]

Russia

Spain

  • In Barcelona, there is an abandoned underground mall near Plaça de Catalunya called Avinguda de la Llum, closed since 1990, which had originally been part of a more ambitious project to build an underground city under the centre of Barcelona. Also, some Metro stations or connecting lines in the same station are connected by underground passages over a block in length.
  • Legend has that the many caves and tunnels in Subterranean Toledo under the old part of Toledo were connected and were used by occultists.

Sweden

  • By walking through Stockholm subway stations and indoor shopping malls it is possible to walk indoor through the central business district, partly underground, from Arsenalsgatan subway entrance (Kungsträdgården station) to Kungsbron (north entrance to Cityterminalen bus terminal), covering a distance of between 1 and 2 kilometres.

Switzerland

  • Geneva contains a large underground shopping centre which also acts to connect separate sections of surface shops.
  • helicopter pad
    , pharmacies and storage facilities.
  • Zürich Hauptbahnhof in Zürich has an underground RailCity shopping mall with full access to the station platforms.[30]

Ukraine

  • Kyiv: an underground concourse extends underneath Khreschatyk Street from Maidan Nezalezhnosti to Ploshcha Ukrainskykh Heroiv. The concourse connects to the Kyiv Metro and to the Globe shopping mall beneath Maidan Nezalezhnosti.
  • Odesa Catacombs
    covers the historical center of Odesa and some suburban areas.

United Kingdom

  • Corsham, Wiltshire, is the location of the Central Government War Headquarters, code name 'Burlington'. Built in the late 1950s in response to the increasing threat of nuclear warfare during the Cold War, the 35 acres (14 ha) subterranean site was designed to be the main emergency government war headquarters of the UK outside London and safely house up to 4,000 central government personnel in the event of a nuclear strike.
  • In London's redeveloped docklands Canary Wharf tube station, adjacent office towers and shopping malls are connected underground. It is also possible to access two stations of the Docklands Light Railway without going outside.
  • Dover contains a series of interconnecting tunnels, that honeycomb both sides of the Dover Valley, carved into the chalk cliffs. These date from Ancient times at Dover Castle through to Napoleonic, Second and Cold War installations. The Dover Castle complex is the larger, going at least six levels deep and includes a hospital, troops quarters, offices and storage and channel view points. The southern tunnels are mixed between Napoleonic War-era defences (see Dover Western Heights) and Second World War-era defences, with some seafront air raid shelters still used for shop storage today. Many have fallen into disrepair and are now closed to the public, but many are still open.
  • Admiralty Citadel beneath Whitehall, created during World War II, and used by Winston Churchill
    .
  • There are extensive underground constructions across Britain, such as Chislehurst Caves, built or repurposed as air-raid shelters during World War II.
  • Edinburgh's old town has extensive rooms, tunnels and chambers beneath some areas; of particular note are the Edinburgh Vaults, where overcrowding led people to construct elaborately interconnected buildings in the vaults of the city's South Bridge.
  • In Southport, Merseyside, Nevill Street has the remainders of an underground shopping street, which can now only be accessed from the cellars of buildings on the current street, which was raised by one storey from the original level. One end of the underground street ended at the Marine Lake, close to the pier entrance.
  • In
    Williamson's tunnels
    included the site of an 'underground house' complete with windows (concealed by work for public opening) and an extant and partially excavated 'banqueting hall'.
  • Nottingham has an extensive network of man-made caves, dating back to the Early Middle Ages.

North America

Canada

PATH entrance, Toronto, Ontario

The cold-winter northern continental climate of much of Canada makes underground pedestrian malls particularly useful in many cities.

United States

Underground passage of the Empire State Plaza, featuring a collection of large-scale abstract modern art
Shirley's White House Vicksburg in 1863

Mexico

  • Mexico DF
    metro system has many underground pedestrian walkways connecting stations.

South America

Argentina

being the most important ones.

Chile

Santiago
has some elements of an underground city in its "Metro" subway system. While all stations have a small mezzanine level above the tracks for ticket purchase, some key stations have extensive areas of shops and kiosks in addition. Some stations even have an additional mall-like level between the street and the mezzanine levels.

See also

Other parent categories from the same field:

Types of underground spaces and people, and related topics:

References

  1. ^ Capi Lynn (January 30, 2015). "From opium dens to bordellos, historian unearths Salem's past". Statesmanjournal.com. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  2. ^ Lord, Steve (September 29, 2017). "Vault project shines light on underground Aurora". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 28, 2017.
  3. ^ Garvin, Cosmo (July 17, 2003). "The past below". Sacramento Newsreview. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014.
  4. ^ Jiang, Steven (February 1, 2008). "Beijing Journal: An underground 'parallel universe'". Cable News Network. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
  5. ^ "广州最全16个地下商场!逛街来这里!衣服便宜又漂亮!-美食频道-手机搜狐". m.sohu.com. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  6. ^ "联系方式 | 广州花城汇购物中心". www.mowgz.com. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  7. ^ "杭州最大的地下商城今天开建 地铁站直通杭州大厦(图) - 杭网原创 - 杭州网". ori.hangzhou.com.cn. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  8. ^ 时小咪. "每一个深圳人,都自动携带华强北基因". Weixin Official Accounts Platform. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  9. ^ "سال آینده میدان هفت تیر زیرزمینی می شود". www.khabaronline.ir. October 30, 2015.
  10. ^ "Never Get Lost in Shinjuku Station Again!". April 20, 2017.
  11. ^ Ryan, Rowena (August 7, 2014). "Melbourne's underground tunnel network is the most elaborate in the world". news.com.au. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  12. ^ "O nama". www.skenderija.ba.
  13. ^ "Prije tačno 50 godina otvorena Skenderija: Pogledajte kako je tu noć bilo u Sarajevu". radiosarajevo.ba (in Serbo-Croatian). 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  14. ^ a b "Diocletian's palace basement, Split". www.absolute-croatia.com.
  15. ^ "Split – The Substructures". visitsplit.com.
  16. ^ "Underground Helsinki". My Helsinki. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  17. ^ Millar, Lisa; Hawke, Jack (July 22, 2018). "Helsinki's sprawling underground tunnel network offers shelter from Russia's potential threat". ABC News. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  18. ^ Catacomba parislogue.com [dead link]
  19. ^ Image [dead link]
  20. ^ "Notre tournée des visites souterraines : À Arras, retour au Moyen-Âge dans les boves". July 27, 2014.
  21. ^ "Arras - Der Wellington-Steinbruch- Wege der Erinnerung des Ersten Weltkriegs im Nord-Pas de Calais". www.wegedererinnerung-nordfrankreich.com.
  22. ^ Πόλος έλξης η υπόγεια Θεσσαλονίκη (English:Underground Thessaloniki is a pole of attraction (in Greek). October 31, 2010. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012.
  23. ^ a b "Maastricht Kazematten". maastrichtunderground.nl. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  24. ^ "Kazematten en schuilkelder". VVV Maastricht. Archived from the original on November 7, 2009. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  25. ^ "Sint Pietersberg". Stichting Natuurmonumenten. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  26. ^ "Historie grotten". maastrichtunderground.nl. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  27. ^ "Nachtwacht onder mergel". Municipality Maastricht. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  28. ^ "Schuilkelder voor half Maastricht". Reformatorisch Dagblad. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  29. ^ "Podziemne miasto w Warszawie". wykop.pl (in Polish). March 14, 2010. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  30. ^ "Rail City". Archived from the original on August 14, 2007.
  31. ^ "New York State Office of General Services". www.ogs.ny.gov.
  32. ^ Wylie, Jeff. "Welcome - Underground Atlanta". www.underground-atlanta.com. Wylie Creative.
  33. ^ Keith Larson (November 16, 2010). "The HBS Tunnels".
  34. ^ "Map/Directory" (PDF).
  35. ^ "Wright State mythbuster: the tunnel system". Wright State Newsroom. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  36. ^ "Montana's Russell Country: Havre Beneath the Streets". Archived from the original on July 29, 2012.
  37. ^ "Map of Minnesota State Capitol complex" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 3, 2007.
  38. ^ "The Conncourse or The Underground". About.com.
  39. ^ Chambers, Kelley (January 19, 2007). "Downtown OKC's Underground set for completion next month". The Journal Record.