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In many art books, films featured underground cities. How real are these fantasies? Not underground warehouses, storage or network of transport and energy communications, and exactly the dungeons intended for the life and work of people? Quite are real. Let’s say even more: underground cities were, are and will be. Salt Mine City 
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In the Polish city of Wieliczka, salt was mined from the 12th to the 20th century. If a coal mine with its dust is a living hell, then a salt mine, if not paradise, then the place is much more comfortable. Unlike coal miners, the salt miners did not seek to leave the mine as soon as possible, lingered in a dungeon and sought to turn salt mines into more than just a place of hard work. 7 underground levels and 200 km. over 800 years they have decorated galleries with a large number statues and bas-reliefs carved from salt. The pearl is the chapel St. Kinge XVII century.
A photo from open sources But there were real cities where people didn’t They worked, namely, they lived. Cappadocia Underground Cities 
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In the 19th century, a French priest carrying the teachings of Christ foolish Turks stumbled upon a hole in the middle of a plain. Of curiosity he descended into her. So the underground city was opened Kaymakl, which arose in the 1st millennium BC. Eight levels connected ventilation wells and tunnels. In addition to residential premises under the land was kitchens, cellars, stables, canteens, bakeries, workshops, church school and even a cemetery. Upstairs the residents only climbed for processing fields. The population of the city was about 15,000 human. Subsequently, another 6 underground were found in Cappadocia. cities, in the largest of them Derinkuyu lived 20,000 people. 
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Until the 10th century A.D. underground galleries saved their inhabitants from religious persecution and raids of nomads. Scientists carefully they say that they studied no more than 15% of the city, it is assumed that the total number of levels is at least 12. But not all the ancient underground cities had a fate to be abandoned by the inhabitants. Tunisia, Matmata 
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In 1967, residents of the city of Matmata turned to the Tunisian authorities with a request for financial assistance: a rain of 22 days flooded them at home. The official did not understand: what could be the flood in the desert Africa? The commission arriving at the site returned with a terrific the news: ancient Matmata, which dates back to the Romans, is located underground! 
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Today, most of the city’s residents live in the land dwellings, and the underground part of Matmata became a landmark of Tunisia. Citizens previously forced to leave to the north of the country in search of work, now they’ve joined travel business and visitors show their homes for money Europeans. Among the underground cities there are not only “gray-haired old people”, but also the “babies” that arose almost in our memory. “Nora white man ” 
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The Australian Coober Pedy originated in 1915. His birth the city owed a deposit of opals. In arid arid in the south of Australia hundreds of people came to dream of finding your unique gem. 
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Those who arrived very quickly realized that living underground was much more comfortable than on the surface. The miners began to equip themselves housing right in the mines, and lived there can be said even with comfort. So the city of Coober Pedy arose, which is in the language of local Aboriginal means “white man’s hole”. 
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A photo from open sources
A photo from open sources
Today, 1,695 people live in Coober Pedy. There are shops in the city, church, restaurants and everything, of course, underground. In underground in apartments you will find all the benefits of civilization: electricity, plumbing and sewage. The only thing they don’t have is windows. Montreal Underground 
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The pedestrian network under Canadian Montreal stretches for more than 30 km There are more than 200 restaurants and cafes, 1600 stores and shopping centers, 34 cinemas, hundreds of offices, garages, banks, museums, exits to metro stations. There are no residential neighborhoods, but if rent a room in one of the many hotels in the underground Montreal can live and work without going to the surface for years. Now we are transported to the other side of the planet. Chinese The Underground Great Wall 
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The Beijing Nuclear Bunker was built from 1969 to 1979. Underground the complex included about a thousand bomb shelters and was supposed to save 300,000 residents of the capital from a nuclear strike. total area dungeons – more than 85 square meters. km There were restaurants and shops, schools and hospitals, reading rooms and theaters, factories and warehouses, there was even an inline skating rink. Network bunkers was called the “Underground Great Wall of China,” because, like ground, it served defense purposes. Throughout almost 20 years the underground city was just abandoned, used homeless people, illegal migrants and crime. Today urban authorities are gradually mastering underground Beijing, disposing of it cheap hostels, business and shopping centers, and underground hotels (of which there are already more than 100). Part of the complex has been turned into a museum and available to visitors. When the entire network of tunnels is mastered, “underground Beijing” will compete with “underground Montreal.” Tomorrow 
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With each passing year, major megacities dig deeper and deeper on the ground. In New York and Tokyo, Paris and Toronto, buildings do not grow only up but also down. This is coming to Moscow, where more and more Underground transport, commercial and entertainment infrastructure. And soon the expression “underground Moscow “will no longer be associated with archaeological explorations.
Australia China Moscow
