Secret underground cities of the world. The most mysterious underground cities

Paris and Naples, Rome and Kharkov, Moscow and Odessa... What unites all these cities? The presence of an extensive system of underground passages and tunnels underneath, built at different times and for different purposes. In this article you will find the most interesting facts about the underground cities of the world. Many do not even suspect that some of them are connected with Russian territory.

Underground cities of the world: history and modernity

Incredibly, within the former USSR there are over two thousand artificial objects built underground at different times and eras. Historians date the most ancient underground cities to the 14th millennium BC. e. This is the so-called “Stone Tomb”, which is located near the village of Terpenye in Ukraine.

Today, underground cities and various catacomb-type objects have been discovered in different parts of the globe: in France, Italy and Spain, Malta, Turkey, Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine... This list can be continued for a very, very long time .

The underground cities of Paris are a whole network of tunnels and galleries, the total length of which is almost 300 kilometers! And what is most surprising is that the first underground passages were built here before the Nativity of Christ.

Under Rome there are underground cities, which are older than those in Paris. Today we know about forty catacombs, once hollowed out in tuffs - the porous rock of the Apennine Peninsula. Their total length, according to some sources, can reach 500 kilometers.

The Neapolitan catacombs are also widely known (there are about 400 of them in total). Researchers discovered not only a network of tunnels under this city, but also the remains of a water supply system, aqueducts and food storage facilities.

Several underground cities are located in the Cappadocia region in Turkey. More recently, an underground city was found there, in which about 20 thousand people could simultaneously live! Archaeologists found in it not only the remains of residential premises, but even traces of churches and wine factories.

The underground cities of Russia are also known. Some of them are surrounded by many secrets and mysteries. First of all, we are talking about the underground city of Yamantau, as well as the dungeons in Ramenki (Moscow).

“Cities underground”: why were they built?

The main mystery of underground cities (most of them) is why they were created. There are several main reasons.

1. Residential structures underground were built so that they could hide from enemy attacks from the outside.
2. People “burrowed” underground for industrial purposes, in particular, to extract valuable rocks from it. Thus, in Paris in the 11th century, a large network of catacombs was created for the extraction of limestone. But in Chisinau in the 19th century, many kilometers of dungeons were created for other purposes - to store wine in them.
3. Since ancient times, dungeons have been used by people as burial places. In particular, the remains of about 800 thousand people are now buried near Rome, and almost 6 million near Paris.
4. Underground tunnels were created by people for religious purposes, for prayer and solitude. An example is the artificial caves carved out by monks in Kyiv and Chernigov.

Underground cities are created in our time, but to perform other functions. Urbanists argue that any city first grows in breadth, then upward, and even later goes underground. In many of the largest megacities of our time, dungeons are actively used: they house parking lots, huge shopping malls, cafes and restaurants, even the offices of large companies.

Derinkuyu - underground city in Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a historically unique area of ​​Turkey, in which a whole complex of underground cities and monasteries has been preserved. The largest of them is the ancient city of Derinkuyu. Today it is completely landscaped for visits by tourists.

The construction of the underground city of Derinkuyu began in the second millennium BC. People hid in its tunnels and halls during raids by aggressive nomads. The city consists of eight tiers, going 60 meters deep.

A unique monument of history and underground architecture was discovered by scientists only in the 60s of the twentieth century. To date, only 15% of the area of ​​the entire city has been studied. However, scientists have already calculated that up to 20 thousand people could take refuge in it at the same time!

Derinkuyu is a complex and intricate system of halls, rooms and passages, both horizontal and vertical. Apparently, the underground city was built in such a way that a potential enemy, entering it, could easily get lost there.

The Derinkuyu Tunnels are carved out of very soft and pliable rock - volcanic tuff. At the same time, this rock quickly hardens when exposed to air, which makes it an ideal material for creating underground structures. Researchers have already established that Derinkuyu had everything necessary for the long life of a large number of people - living rooms, stables, premises for livestock, cellars, bakeries, wells and even its own underground churches.

Damanhur - the eighth wonder of the world

Damanhur is not only a unique underground city in Italy, but also a world-famous scientific and environmental community. The lifestyle of this community was recently assessed by the UN as a model for sustainable development of the future.

The community borrowed its name from the ancient Egyptian city of Damanhur, which translated means “abode of Horus.” It was in this city that entire generations of priests of Ancient Egypt were trained.

Today Damanhur is an entire underground complex carved into a cliff in northern Italy. The underground city consists of five levels and several temples over 30 meters high. But not only the architecture of this place is striking, but also its inhabitants. These are people with the most interesting teachings, combining ancient knowledge with the latest developments in the field of psychology and medicine. The inhabitants of Damanhur are known for conducting specific rituals of rejuvenation, as well as healing from various ailments, which attracts a considerable number of tourists from all over the world. Various tour operators organize trips to Damanhur with the goal of introducing everyone to the inhabitants of the unusual city, as well as their philosophy and scientific activities.

Catacombs of Naples

One of the main attractions of the Italian city of Naples are its catacombs.

Today, several systems of ancient catacombs remain under this city. All of them are ennobled and qualitatively restored. You can only enter the Neapolitan Catacombs with a guide. The entrance ticket is not very expensive - only 8 euros. The tour of the catacombs lasts about one hour.

The most interesting in Naples is the San Gennarro catacomb system, which began to be created in the second century. And two centuries later, it was here that the martyr Januarius was buried. These catacombs had one purpose - funeral. Underground tunnels were built until the 5th century; as a result, the catacombs of San Gennarro have two horizontal levels - upper and lower.

At the lower level of the catacombs, the vaults of the underground passages are decorated with stunning paintings. On them you can also see images of David and Goliath, the goddess Victoria, as well as Adam and Eve. The lower tier includes three galleries, the most interesting of which is the central one. Here tourists can see mosaics depicting grapevines and peacocks - a symbol of immortality. Most of these ancient mosaics are being restored today.

Odessa catacombs

Odessa is not only the sea and humor. Under South Palmyra there is a catacomb system unique in its scale, created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes dozens of quarries and mine workings, which are interconnected by a complex and intricate labyrinth of passages. Their total length is 2500 kilometers. For comparison, a similar system of underground tunnels near Paris is only 500 km long.

Odessa catacombs are a real monument of history and geology. It is surprising that it still does not have the appropriate legal status.

Underground voids and labyrinths appeared near Odessa as a result of the extraction of shell rock - a material that at one time was actively used for the construction of the city and its buildings. The system of artificially created catacombs is further complicated by karst cavities of natural origin.

The first quarries appeared here in the middle of the 19th century. The so-called Pontic limestone was mined there to meet the construction needs of the young city. By the beginning of the twentieth century, underground mining was already carried out so intensively that cases of failures, subsidence and even collapses of entire buildings became frequent in the city.

During the Second World War, the Odessa catacombs became a reliable refuge for Soviet partisan detachments. In particular, the life and struggle of partisans in the catacombs of Odessa against the Nazi invaders are beautifully described in V. Kataev’s novel “Waves of the Black Sea.”

Minsk and its "underground city"

An excellent example of a modern underground structure is the underground city in Minsk (Belarus). This is a shopping center appropriately named "Underground City". It is located truly underground, right under the Belarus department store, built in Soviet times. You can get into it from the Partizanskaya metro station.

The unique shopping center was built after the collapse of the USSR. It consists of one underground hall of enormous size. It houses at least two hundred shops located in several rows. Here you can buy anything: from cosmetics and souvenirs to expensive jewelry.

As for the historical underground passages of old Minsk, they most likely have not survived. True, there is a legend that there is an old underground passage under Freedom Square connecting the Jesuit Church with the Bernardine monastery. Also of interest to stalkers and diggers are the collectors of underground rivers and streams in Minsk, which stretch for several kilometers under the city.

Secrets of the Moscow microdistrict Ramenki

Is there an underground city near Moscow? Many people ask themselves this question.

Probably every Muscovite has heard that in the capital of Russia there is a huge underground city in Ramenki, right under a residential neighborhood. It is assumed that up to 15 thousand people will be able to hide in it in the event of a nuclear war. The secret underground city is approximately located under the area from Moscow State University to Udaltsova Street. By the way, the hypothesis of the existence of this city is supported by the fact that this area has not been built up for a long time.

If you believe certain sources, the underground city in Ramenki began to be created back in the 60s of the last century. Construction continued in complete secrecy until 1979.

The underground city was created to be completely habitable in case of a nuclear attack. Presumably, the Moscow State University complex is directly connected to it by an underground tunnel, the purpose of which was to instantly deliver the country’s “best minds” to a safe place in case of a military threat.

The secret second capital of Russia

Recently, there has been more and more talk about a secret facility called Yamantau. The underground city for Russian President Vladimir Putin is allegedly located in a mountain near the town of Mezhgorye, in Bashkortostan.

It is known that active construction work is underway in the area. But what exactly is being built there is unclear. Some argue that a “reserve” capital of Russia is being created in Mount Yamantau - an underground city designed for 300 thousand inhabitants.

There are quite a few so-called “closed” cities in Russia. However, there is neither a military base, nor a research institute, nor any other secret institution in Mezhgorye. But the city-forming enterprise of the small town is the construction company "US-30", which leads to certain thoughts.

The most popular version is that an underground city is being created in Mizhgorye in case of the Third World War. By the way, the idea of ​​cities that double as capitals is not new at all; it is being successfully developed, for example, in Japan and the Republic of Korea. According to sources, a network of tunnels with a total length of about 500 kilometers has already been created under Mount Yamantau in Bashkortostan.

Metro - underground "city" of Moscow

The metropolitan area in a large metropolis has long been perceived as a separate and large underground city. And Moscow is no exception in this regard.

Rumors that, in addition to the completely official ones, there are also secret metro lines near Moscow appeared quite a long time ago. And over the years they have already acquired various hypotheses and versions, often extremely fantastic and incredible.

Thus, the routes of the secret lines of the Moscow metro were first published in 1992. The most interesting is the so-called “secret line No. 1”, connecting the Kremlin with Vnukovo-2 airport. By the way, it also passes through a hypothetically existing underground city in Ramenki. The line was built back in 1967 and is 27 kilometers long.

Finally...

Underground cities have been created and continue to be created in our time. Previously, they served people for various purposes: they protected them from enemy attacks, provided shelter for monks and hermits, and acted as burial places. Some of them hide many secrets and mysteries, which scientists, historians and archaeologists have yet to solve.

Today, underground cities often house car parks, company offices, and large shopping centers.

Humanity has been building underground cities long before our era. With the outbreak of the First World War, the construction of underground cities for fortification purposes acquired a new scope. It is known that on the territory of the former USSR there were more than 2 thousand underground settlements, some of them were built by our ancestors BC.

Catacomb settlements can be found all over the world. There are them in Paris, Rome, Cappadocia and other cities of the world. Each such underground structure contains many secrets and mysteries, but not every one is able to withstand the destructive blow it was created to inflict.

The construction of underground cities in case of emergency was carried out under the heading “secret”. Not every participant in this construction knew how to keep state secrets as they should be, and information about such structures went to the masses, becoming overgrown with myths and legends.

Mysterious underground cities of Russia

Many people know where exactly the underground cities are located only by the name of the area and rumors. Some walk over them every day and don’t even realize it. Only those who have access to state secrets, live, work or guard them know how to get into the underground city. The entrance to such a city can be inside any ordinary city building.

All secret underground cities are supervised by the FSB of the Russian Federation and the Main Directorate of the Russian Presidential Intelligence Service. Conversations about them began to be widely discussed in the early 90s of the last century. This was preceded by the declassification of some KGB archives.

Underground city in Ramenki

One of these mysterious underground cities is located in one of the capital's districts - Ramenki. It is believed that a city was built under them in case the Third World War broke out, designed for 12-15 thousand people. It is completely autonomous. It has its own power supply, sewerage, water and air supply systems. The location of the underground city is determined between Moscow State University and Udaltsova Street. This area of ​​the capital has not been built up for a long time.

The underground city in Ramenki is associated with the mysterious Moscow Metro-2, which is sometimes called Stalin’s subway. It was built in parallel with the existing metro of the capital. Articles have repeatedly appeared in the media that the depth of underground Moscow buildings, which could become a shelter from the outbreak of the Third World War, can reach 300 meters.

You can get to the underground city from the existing Moscow metro, which was built with the possibility of being used as a bomb shelter for residents and guests of the capital. There is an opinion that there are other ways to get into the city. This can be done from one of the buildings of Moscow State University, the Rossiya Hotel, the Kremlin and other places. In Ramenki themselves there are elevator shafts for descending deep into the earth.

In the event, this underground city can be used as a command post. It has underground connections to Vnukovo airport and other strategic sites.

Secret cities in Russia

In modern Russia there are cities and closed-type industries. They are under the jurisdiction and control of the Russian Ministry of Defense. All of them have a ground and underground part, which can go deep into the ground significantly below 10 floors. All such buildings are autonomous and have food and water supplies for at least three months. They are scattered throughout the country, but it is impossible to find them on maps until the special secrecy label is removed from them. Instead of a name, they have a letter. An example is the well-known, declassified city of Arzamas 16.

For a very long time it was impossible to find it on the map of the country in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Now the general public knows how. Near this closed city there is a place sacred to many believers - Diveevo. The local monastery houses the relics of Seraphim of Sarov, and Orthodox people from all over the world come to touch them. Despite the large number of tourists, not a single stranger can get past the Sarov checkpoint, and one can only guess about the depth of the underground buildings and their reliability.

There are 32 such closed cities in Russia. Most of them are located in the Moscow region, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Chelyabinsk Region and the Ural region. The most famous of them are Zarechny in the Penza region, Lesnoy in the Sverdlovsk region on the banks of the Tura, Zheleznogorsk and Zelenogorsk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Underground city Yamantau

Sixty kilometers from Magnitogorsk is the Abzakovo mountain resort. In the media of many countries around the world you can find articles about this remarkable place. This is due to rumors that next to this resort in Mount Yamantau there is an underground city - the secret residence of Putin and a military headquarters in the event of World War III.

For the first time, such a well-known American publication as the New York Times wrote about this secret residence of the Russian Government. This happened in April 1996. The construction of the city itself has been rumored since the Cold War. From Beloretsk, a railway and a highway are connected to Yamantau, the top of the mountain is carefully guarded. Any nuclear weapon will not be able to destroy the strength of the shelter structure.

The official status of Yamantau is a repository of state values. Very often the Abzakovo mountain resort is visited by Putin. This gives rise to speculation about the President's secret bunker in case of nuclear war.

Where will the Chinese government hide from a nuclear attack?

In 1969, Mao Tse-tung ordered the creation of a reliable underground bunker for the Government. The Third World War, in the Chinese understanding, is inevitable. It is very important to preserve leadership of the army and the country as much as possible in the event of use by the aggressor. Beijing was chosen to build such a shelter. The length of the government bunker underground is 30 kilometers. It's practically a city within a city. It has shops, schools and even an ice skating rink. There are quite a lot of similar bunkers in Beijing. If nuclear weapons are used, 40% of the population of the Chinese capital will be able to escape in them.

In addition to the Beijing bunker, a network of secret tunnels has been created in the Celestial Empire, which has been called the “Great Underground Wall of China.” The tunnels are connected to underground facilities where nuclear weapons are stored. They are located in the Urumqi region - in the direction of Russia, next to the Korean Peninsula - opposite Vietnam, India and Taiwan.

Where did the Americans build underground cities?

You can even find a well-equipped bomb shelter in the USA in the courtyard of a private house. The fear of World War III has lived in Americans since the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Khrushchev’s promise to show them Kuzka’s mother. The FSB probably knows where the American government will be hiding. Ordinary people can only guess. A large number of articles have appeared in the media over the past few years about underground construction in the Denver Airport area. Many journalists describe the pace of construction of the facility as feverish. Construction of the facility began back in the 50s.

Underground sites in the United States can be found in Mount Cheyenne, Colorado, in Virginia - the Greenbrier Bunker and Mount Weather, Massachusetts - Iron Mountain, Pennsylvania-Maryland - the Raven Rock mountain complex. All these shelters in the event of a nuclear war will be used by the American elites to save their lives. There is also a deep underground base at a US Air Force facility called Area 51, which became famous after the Rosewell UFO incident.

Underground Crimea

There are quite a lot of catacombs on the territory of the peninsula, which played the role of a reliable shelter during the Second World War. While part of Ukraine, many secret underground facilities were declassified and lost their strategic relevance. Among such objects is underground command post No. 221 near Sevastopol. At Cape Ak-Burun there is object No. 100 - an underground shelter for coastal ships. Between Sevastopol and Yalta there is the “Barrel of Death” and the concrete casemates of the Southern Fort of Balaklava.

Between Sudak and Feodosia there is underground facility No. 76. During Soviet times, nuclear weapons were stored there.

Secret underground cities of the world

There are secret underground cities or bunkers in all the capitals of nuclear powers. All of them are equipped with systems for autonomous power supply, communications, water supply, air supply, sewage system and food and water supplies. Information about the presence of such facilities in any country in the world is secret. The protection of such objects is carried out by the internal security services of the state.

There is a high probability that in the event of the outbreak of the Third World War, underground cities will become the only objects in which humanity is possible. After all, a series of nuclear bombings will lead to such an effect as a nuclear winter, which will provoke a number of natural disasters, starting with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, ending with large-scale tsunamis and, as a result, floods.

After the Earth's atmosphere ends and becomes unsuitable for human habitation, contaminated air and radioactive ash will cover the entire planet. Even those people who do not fall into the bombing zones will one way or another be doomed to a slow death. Take care of the lives of yourself and your loved ones; if you do not belong to the scientific, military or political elite of the country, you still have a chance to find refuge in one of the civilian bomb shelters that are available in almost every city. Civilian objects are not classified as classified; a list can be provided to you at the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Surely everyone has heard stories about people living in abandoned mines, caves or subways. Or maybe someone read “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells and then probably remembers the Morlocks. In many places on Earth, underground cities not only exist, but sometimes even thrive.

1. Underground Beijing

Mao Zedong ordered the construction of temporary housing for the socialist government in 1969. Construction took 10 years, and as a result, an entire city with a total length of 30 kilometers stretched near Beijing. It had shops, restaurants, schools, theaters, hair salons and even a roller skating rink. In addition to all these amenities, the city had approximately 1,000 bomb shelters in case of attack.

Rumor has it that every house in “upper” Beijing had a secret hatch so that citizens could quickly retreat to the underground complex if necessary. In 2000, the dungeons were officially opened to tourists, and some bomb shelters are now used as hotels.

2. Setenil de las Bodegas

Unlike most of the cities on our list, the Spanish town of Setenil de las Bodegas is home to 3,000 people. True, the houses in this city are built directly into the rock, and not underground.

Most of the city streets are located in the open air, and tourists often come to this city to see houses, as if crushed by rocks. The city previously served as a Moorish fortification and was later used as an outpost in the fight against the Roman Empire.

3. Moose Jaw

The city is located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, where winter lasts for a very long time. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was so cold there that it was almost impossible to go outside, and tunnels were built under the city - this would make it warmer to get to work. Given the time period in which the tunnels appeared, it is not surprising that they soon began to be used for illegal purposes.

Bandits and liquor dealers appeared underground - then prohibition was adopted in Canada. And where there is illegal alcohol, there is prostitution and gambling, so the underground town soon turned into a mini Las Vegas. It is said that Al Capone himself was involved in all this illegal activity.

4. City of the Gods

The Great Pyramids near the Egyptian city of Giza are still considered one of the greatest wonders of the world. But the Pyramids are not only an architectural miracle. They are also interesting because underneath them lies a whole network of tunnels and chambers.

Researchers are still exploring the underground complex, dubbed the City of the Gods, but it is still shrouded in mystery. However, given the scientific interest in this place that arose back in 1978, the mysteries will soon be solved.

5. Portland

Beneath one of the largest cities in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States lies the Shanghai Tunnels, also known as the Forbidden City. They are located under Chinatown, and were previously used to transport goods and, according to rumors, people. Because of this underground complex, Portland gained fame as the worst place on the west coast of America - healthy, strong men were kidnapped from the city in the last century for forced labor on sailing ships. In addition, prostitution flourished in the tunnels. True, today the situation has changed for the better, and now there is no risk when traveling through the tunnels.

6. Wieliczka Salt Mine

Located in southern Poland, the Wieliczka Salt Mine was built in the 13th century. Salt mining continued here until 2007, making it one of the oldest salt mines in history. But besides this, the mine is an underground residential complex, where there are statues, chapels and even a cathedral.

The length of the mine is about 300 kilometers. During World War II it was used by the Germans for the construction of munitions. In addition, the mine has a large underground lake, which attracts more than a million tourists a year to this place.

7. Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is also known as the opal capital of the world due to its rich deposits - almost 30% of the world's opals are mined here. The town is made up of houses called dugouts and is home to 1,600 residents. Dugouts appeared as a means of combating the unbearable heat on the surface, and in addition protected miners and their children from wild dingoes and Australian aborigines.

In addition to residential premises, the town boasts underground shops, pubs, and even a cemetery with a church.

8. Quiche

Near the city of Kish in Iran lies another city, so mysterious that it doesn’t even have its own name. It is about 2,500 years old. The underground city was originally used as a water management system.

Of course, like many ancient places, the city was recently restored and will soon open to tourists. It is planned to build cinemas, restaurants and hotels with a total area of ​​10,000 square meters under the city.

9. Cappadocia

The region of Cappadocia in Turkey is primarily known for its underground city of Derinkuyu. The city consists of several levels, and is said to have several thousand inhabitants. This is a big city with its own government system, shops, churches, schools. They even make wine here.

It is believed that there are secret places in underground structures where Christians who did not want to go to feed the lions hid from the persecution of the Roman Empire.

10. Burlington

In the vastness of Great Britain, in the countryside, there is a city code-named Burlington. It was built in the 1950s to house the British government in the event of nuclear war. The city was located in an old stone quarry with an area of ​​1 square kilometer and could accommodate 4,000 government employees, although without their families.

The town had its own railway station, hospitals, underground lakes, water purification facilities and a pub. In addition, the city had a radio station from which the prime minister could communicate his decisions to the entire small settlement. Burlington remained operational until the 1990s and was ready to accommodate residents until the end of the Cold War.

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Recently, a huge complex of underground cities, located on several tiers and connected by tunnels, was discovered in Turkey (Cappadocia). Underground shelters were built by an unknown people in ancient times.

Eric von Daniken in the book “In the Footsteps of the Almighty” describes these shelters as follows:

...giant underground cities were discovered, designed for many thousands of inhabitants. The most famous of them are located under the modern village of Derinkuyu. Entrances to the underworld are hidden under houses. Here and there in the area there are ventilation holes leading far into the interior. The dungeon is cut through by tunnels connecting the rooms. The first floor from the village of Derinkuyu covers an area of ​​four square kilometers, and the premises on the fifth floor can accommodate 10 thousand people. It is estimated that this underground complex can accommodate 300 thousand people at a time.

The Derinkuyu underground structures alone have 52 ventilation shafts and 15 thousand entrances. The largest mine reaches a depth of 85 meters. The lower part of the city served as a reservoir for water...

To date, 36 underground cities have been discovered in this area. Not all of them are on the scale of Kaymakli or Derinkuyu, but their plans were carefully developed. People who know this area well believe that there are many more underground structures here. All cities known today are connected to each other by tunnels.

These underground shelters with huge stone valves, warehouses, kitchens and ventilation shafts are shown in Eric von Däniken's documentary In the Footsteps of the Almighty. The author of the film suggested that ancient people hid in them from some threat coming from heaven.

In many regions of our planet there are numerous mysterious underground structures of unknown purpose to us. In the Sahara Desert (Ghat oasis) near the Algerian border (10° west longitude and 25° north latitude), underground there is a whole system of tunnels and underground communications, which are carved into the rock. The height of the main adits is 3 meters, width – 4 meters. In some places the distance between the tunnels is less than 6 meters. The average length of the tunnels is 4.8 kilometers, and their total length (including auxiliary adits) is 1,600 kilometers.

The modern English Channel Tunnel looks like child's play compared to these structures. There is an assumption that these underground corridors were intended to supply water to the desert regions of the Sahara. But it would be much easier to dig irrigation canals on the surface of the earth. Moreover, in those distant times, the climate in this region was humid, there was heavy rainfall - and there was no special need for irrigation.

To dig these passages underground, it was necessary to extract 20 million cubic meters of rock - this is many times the volume of all the Egyptian pyramids built. The work is truly titanic. It is almost impossible to carry out the construction of underground communications in such a volume using even modern technical means. Scientists attribute these underground communications to the 5th millennium BC. e., that is, to the moment when our ancestors just learned to build primitive huts and use stone tools. Who then built these grandiose tunnels and for what purposes?

In the first half of the 16th century, Francisco Pizarro discovered a cave entrance closed with rock blocks in the Peruvian Andes. It was located at an altitude of 6770 meters above sea level on Mount Huascaran. A speleological expedition organized in 1971, examining a tunnel system consisting of several levels, discovered sealed doors that, despite their massiveness, easily turned to reveal the entrance. The floor of the underground passages is paved with blocks treated in such a way as to prevent slipping (the tunnels leading to the ocean have an inclination of about 14°). According to various estimates, the total length of communications ranges from 88 to 105 kilometers. It is assumed that previously the tunnels led to the island of Guanape, but it is quite difficult to test this hypothesis, because the tunnels end in a lake of salty sea water.

In 1965, in Ecuador (Morona-Santiago province), between the cities of Galaquisa, San Antonio and Yopi, Argentinean Juan Morich discovered a system of tunnels and ventilation shafts with a total length of several hundred kilometers. The entrance to this system looks like a neat cutout in the rock about the size of a barn door. The tunnels have a rectangular cross-section with varying widths and sometimes turn at right angles. The walls of the underground communications are covered with a kind of glaze, as if they were treated with some kind of solvent or exposed to high temperature. Interestingly, no rock dumps from the tunnels were found at the exit.

The underground passage leads successively to underground platforms and huge halls located at a depth of 240 meters, with ventilation openings 70 centimeters wide. In the center of one of the halls measuring 110 x 130 meters there is a table and seven thrones made of an unknown material similar to plastic. A whole gallery of large golden figures depicting animals was also discovered there: elephants, crocodiles, lions, camels, bison, bears, monkeys, wolves, jaguars, crabs, snails and even dinosaurs. The researchers also found a “library” consisting of several thousand embossed metal plates measuring 45 x 90 centimeters, covered with incomprehensible signs. The priest Father Carlo Crespi, who carried out archaeological research there with the permission of the Vatican, states:

All the finds brought out of the tunnels date back to the pre-Christian era, and most of the symbols and prehistoric images are older than the time of the Flood.

In 1972, Eric von Daniken met with Juan Moric and persuaded him to show the ancient tunnels. The researcher agreed, but with one condition - not to photograph the underground labyrinths. In his book, Däniken writes:

To help us better understand what was happening, the guides made us walk the last 40 kilometers. We are very tired; the tropics have worn us out. Finally we came to a hill that had many entrances into the depths of the Earth.

The entrance we chose was almost invisible due to the vegetation covering it. It was wider than a railway station. We walked through a tunnel that was about 40 meters wide; its flat ceiling showed no signs of connecting devices.

The entrance to it was located at the foot of the Los Tayos hill, and at least the first 200 meters went simply downhill towards the center of the massif. The height of the tunnel was approximately 230 centimeters, and there was a floor partially covered with bird droppings, a layer of approximately 80 centimeters. Among the garbage and droppings, metal and stone figurines were constantly found. The floor was made of processed stone.

We lit our way with carbide lamps. There were no traces of soot in these caves. According to legend, their inhabitants illuminated the road with golden mirrors that reflected sunlight, or with a system of collecting light using emeralds. This last solution reminded us of the laser principle. The walls are also covered with very well-cut stones. The admiration aroused by the buildings of Machu Picchu diminishes when one sees this work. The stone is smoothly polished and has straight edges. The ribs are not rounded. The joints of the stones are barely noticeable. Judging by some of the treated blocks lying on the floor, there was no settling as the surrounding walls are finished and fully finished. What is it - the carelessness of the creators who, having finished their work, left pieces behind them, or did they think to continue their work?

The walls are almost completely covered with reliefs of animals - both modern and extinct. Dinosaurs, elephants, jaguars, crocodiles, monkeys, crayfish - all headed towards the center. We found a carved inscription - a square with rounded corners, about 12 centimeters on a side. Groups of geometric shapes varied between two and four units of varying lengths, appearing to be placed in vertical and horizontal shapes. This order was not repeated from one to the other. Is it a number system or a computer program? Just in case, the expedition was equipped with an oxygen supply system, but it was not needed. Even today, the ventilation ducts cut vertically into the hill were well preserved and performed their function. When reaching the surface, some of them are covered with lids. It is difficult to detect them from the outside, only sometimes a bottomless well appears among groups of stones.

The ceiling in the tunnel is low, without relief. Outwardly, it looks like it is made of rough processed stone. However, it feels soft to the touch. The heat and humidity disappeared, making the journey easier. We reached a wall of dressed stone that divided our path. On either side of the wide tunnel we were descending there was a path leading to a narrower passage. We moved to one of those that went to the left. We later discovered that another passage led in the same direction. We walked about 1200 meters through these passages, only to find a stone wall blocking our path. Our guide extended his hand to some point, and at the same time two stone doors 35 centimeters wide opened.

We stopped, holding our breath, at the mouth of a huge cave with dimensions that cannot be determined with the naked eye. One side was about 5 meters high. The dimensions of the cave were approximately 110 x 130 meters, although its shape is not rectangular.

The conductor whistled, and various shadows crossed the “living room.” Birds and butterflies were flying, no one knew where. Various tunnels opened up. Our guide said that this Great Room always remains clean. Everywhere on the walls there are animals drawn and squares drawn. Moreover, they all connect to each other. In the middle of the Living Room there was a table and several chairs. The men sit back, leaning back; but these chairs are for taller people. They are designed for statues approximately 2 meters high. At first glance, the table and chairs are made of simple stone. However, if you touch them, they will turn out to be made of plastic material, almost worn out and completely smooth. The table measures approximately 3 x 6 meters and is supported only by a cylindrical base with a diameter of 77 centimeters. The thickness of the top is about 30 centimeters. There are five chairs on one side and six or seven on the other. If you touch the inside of the table top, you can feel the texture and coldness of the stone, making you think that it is covered with an unknown material. First, the guide led us to another hidden door. Once again, two sections of stone opened effortlessly, revealing another, but smaller, living space. It had a lot of shelves with volumes, and in the middle there was a passage between them, like in a modern book warehouse. They were also made of some cold material, soft, but with edges that almost cut the skin. Stone, petrified wood or metal? Hard to understand.

Each volume was 90 centimeters high and 45 centimeters thick and contained about 400 processed gold pages. These books have metal covers that are 4 millimeters thick and are darker in color than the pages themselves. They are not sewn, but they are fastened in some other way. The carelessness of one of the visitors drew our attention to another detail. He grabbed one of the metal pages, which, despite being only a fraction of a millimeter thick, was strong and smooth. The notebook without a cover fell to the floor and when I tried to pick it up, it wrinkled like paper. Each page had an engraving, so exquisite that it seemed as if it had been written in ink. Maybe this is the underground storage of some kind of space library?

The pages of these volumes are divided into various squares with rounded corners. Here it is perhaps much easier to understand these hieroglyphs, abstract symbols, as well as stylized human figures - heads with rays, hands with three, four and five fingers. Among these symbols, one is similar to a large carved inscription found in the museum of the Church of Our Lady of Cuenca. It probably belongs to the gold objects believed to have been taken from Los Tayos. It is 52 centimeters long, 14 centimeters wide and 4 centimeters deep, with 56 different characters, which could well be the alphabet... The visit to Cuenca turned out to be very important for us, because it was possible to see the objects exhibited by Father Crespi in the Church of Our Lady, and also listen to the legends about the local white gods, fair-haired and blue-eyed, who visited this country from time to time... Their residence is unknown, although it is assumed that they lived in an unknown city near Cuenca. Although the dark-skinned indigenous population believes that they bring happiness, they are afraid of their mental power, as they practice telepathy and are said to be able to levitate objects without contact. Their average height is 185 centimeters for women and 190 for men. The chairs in the Great Living Room at Los Tayos will definitely suit them.

Numerous illustrations of amazing underground finds can be seen in von Daniken’s book “The Gold of the Gods.” When Juan Moric reported his discovery, a joint Anglo-Ecuadorian expedition was organized to explore the tunnels. Her honorary advisor, Neil Armstrong, said of the results:

Signs of human life underground have been found in what may prove to be the major worldwide archaeological discovery of the century.

After this interview, there was no more information about the mysterious dungeons, and the area where they are located is now closed to foreigners.

Shelters for protection from the cataclysms that struck the Earth during its approach to the neutron star, as well as from all kinds of disasters that accompanied the wars of the gods, were built all over the globe. Dolmens, which are a kind of stone dugouts covered with a massive slab and with a small round hole for entry, were intended for the same purposes as underground structures, that is, they served as a shelter. These stone structures are found in different parts of the world - India, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Sicily, England, France, Belgium, Spain, Korea, Siberia, Georgia, Azerbaijan. At the same time, dolmens located in different parts of our planet are surprisingly similar to each other, as if they were made according to a standard design. According to the legends and myths of various peoples, they were built by dwarfs, as well as people, but the latter’s buildings turned out to be more primitive, since they used roughly processed stones.

During the construction of these structures, sometimes special vibration-damping layers were made under the foundation, which protected the dolmens from earthquakes. For example, an ancient structure located in Azerbaijan near the village of Gorikidi has two damping tiers. In the Egyptian pyramids, chambers filled with sand were also discovered, which served for the same purposes.

The precision of the fit of the massive stone slabs of the dolmens is also amazing. Even with the help of modern technical means, it is very difficult to assemble a dolmen from ready-made blocks. This is how A. Formozov describes in his book “Monuments of Primitive Art” an attempt to transport one of the dolmens:

In 1960, it was decided to transport some dolmen from Esheri to Sukhumi - to the courtyard of the Abkhazian museum. We chose the smallest one and brought a crane to it. No matter how they fastened the loops of the steel cable to the cover plate, it did not budge. They called the second tap. Two cranes removed the multi-ton monolith, but they were unable to lift it onto a truck. For exactly a year the roof lay in Esheri, waiting for a more powerful mechanism to arrive in Sukhumi. In 1961, using a new mechanism, all the stones were loaded onto vehicles. But the main thing was ahead: to reassemble the house. The reconstruction was only partially completed. The roof was lowered onto four walls, but they could not rotate it so that their edges fit into the grooves on the inner surface of the roof. In ancient times, the slabs were driven so close to each other that a knife blade could not fit between them. Now there is a big gap left.

Currently, numerous ancient catacombs have been discovered in various regions of the planet; it is unknown when and by whom they were dug. There is an assumption that these underground multi-tiered galleries were formed during the process of extracting stone for the construction of buildings. But why was it necessary to spend titanic labor, gouging out blocks of the strongest rocks in narrow underground galleries, when there are similar rocks nearby, located directly on the earth’s surface?

Ancient catacombs were found near Paris, in Italy (Rome, Naples), Spain, on the islands of Sicily and Malta, in Syracuse, Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Crimea. The Russian Society for Speleological Research (ROSI) has done a lot of work to compile an inventory of artificial caves and underground architectural structures in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Currently, information has already been collected on 2,500 catacomb-type objects belonging to different eras. The oldest dungeons date back to the 14th millennium BC. e. (Stone Grave tract in Zaporozhye region).

The Parisian catacombs are a network of winding artificial underground galleries. Their total length is from 187 to 300 kilometers. The most ancient tunnels existed even before the birth of Christ. In the Middle Ages (12th century), limestone and gypsum began to be mined in the catacombs, as a result of which the network of underground galleries was significantly expanded. Later, the dungeons were used to bury the dead. Currently, the remains of about 6 million people rest near Paris.

The dungeons of Rome may be very ancient. More than 40 catacombs, carved into porous volcanic tuff, have been found under the city and its surroundings. The length of the galleries, according to the most conservative estimates, ranges from 100 to 150 kilometers, and possibly exceeds 500 kilometers. During the Roman Empire, dungeons were used to bury the dead: in the galleries of the catacombs and numerous individual burial chambers there are from 600 thousand to 800 thousand burials. At the beginning of our era, the catacombs housed churches and chapels of early Christian communities.

In the vicinity of Naples, about 700 catacombs have been discovered, consisting of tunnels, galleries, caves and secret passages. The oldest dungeons date back to 4500 BC. e. Speleologists discovered underground water pipes, aqueducts and water tanks, rooms where food supplies were previously stored. During World War II, the catacombs were used as bomb shelters.

One of the attractions of ancient Maltese culture is the Hypogeum, an underground catacomb-type shelter that goes several floors deep. Over the centuries (between 3200 and 2900 BC) it was chiseled out of solid granite rock using stone tools. Already in our time, on the lower tier of this underground city, researchers discovered the remains of 6 thousand people buried with various ritual objects.

Perhaps the mysterious underground structures were used by people as shelters from various disasters that occurred on Earth more than once. Descriptions of grandiose battles between aliens that took place in the distant past on our planet, preserved in various sources, suggest that the dungeons could serve as bomb shelters or bunkers.

Beijing is one of the unique cities on our planet. It is striking in everything from medieval buildings, with its history dating back centuries, and the architecture of a modern metropolis. However, hardly anyone knows that with all this external splendor, such as the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City or the famous Tiananmen Square, there is another Beijing, unknown to anyone and invisible to the eye, this is Beijing - underground (website).

The underground city (Dixia Cheng) appeared relatively recently, in the 70s of the twentieth century. Its appearance is connected with the same notorious Cold War. Relations with the USSR had reached a critical point, and China was seriously afraid of a nuclear strike from its all-powerful neighbor. Then the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong, decided to build an underground city, where, in the event of an attack, almost the entire population of Beijing could take refuge.

The project for the construction of the city was developed back in the 60s of the twentieth century and after its approval in record time, almost under the center of Beijing, on a total area of ​​more than 80 square kilometers, a city arose where, in fairly comfortable conditions, about 800 thousand Beijing residents could be accommodated.

This city is not just a temporary bomb shelter, it has all the infrastructure inherent in cities: streets, residential areas, places where troops and equipment are stationed; schools, hospitals, theaters, cinemas, cafes, markets, farms for growing animals, mushrooms and plants; food storage facilities and even sports facilities. Along the perimeter of the entire city there is a system of wells that provides the city’s population with water; a specially designed ventilation system is impenetrable to radioactive and chemical waste.

Massive cement concrete walls and doors can withstand not only a nuclear strike, but also protect against earthquakes and floods. It is not known exactly how many floors deep the city is built, since the Chinese government has not made this information public.

In early 2000, at the end of the Cold War, the PRC leadership opened access to a small part of the city, allowing limited access for tourists. According to the reviews and descriptions of the first tourists, they were amazed by the scale of the buildings of the underground city. However, from 2008 to the present, the Beijing underground was officially closed by the authorities for reconstruction. Beijing is a modern metropolis with an acute problem and local disadvantaged residents have arbitrarily occupied some underground bunkers. Currently, this structure is the largest known modern underground city.