Mysterious underground city. Mysterious Underground City in Beijing Underground City Longview China

• Address: 747 Rue du Square-Victoria, Montréal, QC H2Y 3Y9, Canada
• Telephone: (514) 398-9769
• Site: montrealundergroundcity.com
• Opening: 1962 g.
• Number of shops and services: 1600
• Working hours: 09: 30-18: 00 (Mon-Thu), 09: 30-21: 00 (Fri), 10: 00-17: 00 (Sat-Sun)

The Underground City is a popular attraction in. It is a vast underground space made up of winding tunnels, shops and stations. When you visit this place for the first time, it seems as if you are in a large anthill, where life does not stop for a minute. In order not to get lost in the labyrinth of corridors, the tourist should carefully follow the signs.

The project was developed by the urbanist Vincent Ponte, in whose honor a memorial plaque was erected on the Place de Ville-Marie in 2006. In 1962, the Place Ville-Marie office center was built in this part of the city, under which the first link of the Underground City in Montreal was laid. Later, through a network of tunnels, it was connected to Central Station and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

In 1966, in honor of EXPO-67, the Montreal subway system was inaugurated, leading to a fork in the underground tunnels. Thus, the Underground City in Montreal linked up with the station and the Bonaventure square, the Place du Canada office center, and other major sites. Until 2003, the following were connected to this network:

• the building of the city stock exchange;
• federal government building;
• Palace of Congresses;
• the tallest building in the city - Le 1000 De La Gauchetière;
• Montreal World Trade Center.

In 2007, a crack was discovered in the ceiling of the Underground City in Montreal. It was removed with the help of several thousand metal supports.

Initially, this facility was created to protect citizens from the scorching summer sun. Now the Underground City in Montreal is a huge commercial and business space 30 km long and 10 stories high. Placed here:

• 1,500 shops and boutiques;
• about 200 restaurants;
• more than 30 cinemas;
• 1600 apartments;
• 10 metro stations;
• a huge number of offices;
• concert halls;
• underground garages.

Life in the Underground City of Montreal is no different from life on the surface. Thanks to the developed transport network, here you can easily move from object to object, without being idle in traffic jams. Escalators and elevators are provided for moving between multi-level shopping centers.

Every year during the Montreal Highlights Festival, Art Souterrain holds exhibitions in the Montreal Underground City, introducing contemporary art to visitors. Despite the fact that the shopping complex is an example of Art Nouveau and urbanism styles, there is also an interesting temple architecture. So, tourists can visit, admire artificial fountains and swimming pools.

To find your way in the Underground City of Montreal, you need to use the free map, which is issued in the metro. So a simple move from one point of the city to another will turn into an interesting cultural program.

The popular shopping complex is located in the eastern part of the city, 500 meters from the embankment. You can get to the Underground City from other parts of Montreal by bus or metro. 200 m south of it is the Square-Victoria-OACI station, which is on line 2 of the Montreal Metro, and 200 m east - the McGill / Saint-Jacques stop, which can be reached by bus # 61.

To get from the center to the Underground City by car, you need to move northeast along the Rue du Square-Victoria road. The journey takes 4 minutes.

Surely everyone has heard stories about people living in abandoned mines, caves or the subway. Or maybe someone has read HG Wells' Time Machine 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. The construction took 10 years, and as a result, an entire city with a total length of 30 kilometers stretched out near Beijing. It had shops, restaurants, schools, theaters, hairdressers and even a roller skating rink. In addition to all these amenities, the city had approximately 1,000 bomb shelters in the event of an attack.

Rumor has it that every house in the "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 of the bomb shelters are now used as hotels.

2. Setenil de las Bodegas

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

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

3. Moose Joe

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 - so it was warmer to get to jobs. Given the time period when the tunnels appeared, it is not surprising that they soon began to be used for illegal purposes.

Bandits and alcohol dealers appeared underground - then prohibition was passed in Canada. And where there is illegal alcohol, there is prostitution with gambling, so soon the underground town 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 wonder. They are also interesting by the fact that a whole network of tunnels and cameras is spread under them.

Researchers are still studying the underground complex, called the City of the Gods, but it is still shrouded in mystery. True, given the scientific interest in this place, which arose back in 1978, the secrets will soon be unraveled.

5. Portland

Underneath 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 near 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. However, 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 was mined here until 2007, making it one of the oldest salt mines in history. But besides this, the mine is a residential underground complex, where there are statues, chapels and even a cathedral.

The mine is about 300 kilometers long. During World War II, it was used by the Germans for building ammunition. In addition, the mine has a large underground lake that attracts over a million tourists a year to the site.

7. Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is also known as the world capital of opals, as it is a rich deposit - almost 30% of the world's opals are mined here. The city consists of houses called "dugouts" and is home to 1,600 residents. Dugouts emerged as a means of combating the unbearable heat on the surface, and in addition protected the miners and their children from the wild dogs of the dingo and Australian aborigines.

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

8. Kish

Under the city of Kish in Iran lies another city, so mysterious that it does not even have its own name. It is about 2,500 years old. Initially, the underground city was 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 under the city with a total area of ​​10,000 square meters.

9. Cappadocia

The region of Cappadocia in Turkey is known primarily for its underground city of Derinkuyu. The city consists of several levels and is said to have several thousand inhabitants. It is a big city with its own management 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 codenamed Burlington. It was built in the 1950s to house the British government in the event of a nuclear war. The city was located in an old stone quarry with an area of ​​1 square kilometer and could accommodate 4,000 civil servants, albeit without their families.

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

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Beijing is one of the unique cities on our planet. It is striking in everything and medieval buildings, with its history rooted in the depths of 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, unknown to anyone and invisible to the eye of Beijing, this is Beijing - underground (site).

The city underground (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 of tension, and China was seriously afraid of a nuclear strike from an 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 hide.

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 practically under the center of Beijing, on a total area of ​​more than 80 square kilometers, it arose quite, 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 quarters, places of deployment of troops and equipment; schools, hospitals, theaters, cinemas, cafes, markets, animal, mushroom and plant farms; food storage and even sports facilities. A system of wells has been established along the perimeter of the entire city, providing the population of the city with water; a specially designed ventilation system is impervious to radioactive and chemical waste.

Massive concrete walls and doors can withstand not only a nuclear attack, but also protect against earthquakes and floods. It is not known exactly how many floors in depth the city was built, since the Chinese government did not release this information.

In early 2000, after 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 at 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 underprivileged residents have arbitrarily occupied some underground bunkers. Currently, this structure is the largest known modern underground city.

Until now, there are cities on Earth that cannot be seen from satellites, which cannot be found on the map. These cities are underground. Some of them have a thousand-year history, others were built quite recently.

Cappadocia. Derinkuyu

The underground city discovered in Nevsehir may become the largest in the world. But in general, underground buildings are commonplace for Turkey. The central part of the country, Cappadocia, is the undisputed world leader in terms of the number of underground settlements. There are about 200 of them.

The peculiarities of the natural landscape and the geological history of the area contributed to the underground construction here: there are almost no trees, the Cappadocian tuff is soft and easy to work with, while it is highly durable. Underground cities appeared in Cappadocia in the first millennium BC. They could hold tens of thousands of people, according to scientists, some of the dungeons can go 20 floors down.

Today, Derinkuyu is the largest excavated underground city in Cappadocia, although work to cleanse it is still ongoing. 8 floors of the city are already open to tourists. In total, it has at least 12 floors, and its depth supposedly reaches 85 meters.
Derinkuyu could live up to 20 thousand people. In the city, not only living quarters were found, but also storage facilities for food, cattle pens, bakeries and wineries, even a cemetery. Thanks to the system of ventilation shafts, the air remains fresh at all levels of the city.
It is not known exactly who built Derinkuyu. According to one version, these were Phrygian tribes, according to another - the Hittites. In the 5th century, the city became a refuge for Christians who were hiding from the persecution of nomads, and later from Muslims. During this period, the underground settlement expanded significantly, after which churches, schools and wineries appeared in the city.
Derinkuyu is connected by a tunnel with another large underground city - Kaymakli. It was also a refuge for Christians during the Arab invasion. The city could accommodate up to 15 thousand people.

There are underground cities not only in Turkey. The inhabitants of the French town of Naur, located in the province of Picardy, have been hiding underground from enemies for several centuries.
The underground city in Naur was built in the late 8th - early 9th centuries. Then its inhabitants were hiding from the Normans, who began to capture the North of France. The Naur dungeon served as a refuge until the beginning of the 18th century. They hid there from the British during the Hundred Years War and from the Spaniards during the Thirty Years' War. Then the dungeon was used for economic purposes. And finally the underground Naur was abandoned by people only in 1830, when the danger of collapse appeared.
The underground Naur can accommodate up to three thousand people, that is, all residents of the city could freely settle there along with their livestock. Sometimes the danger had to be waited out for a long time. Underground, there were well-equipped kitchens that used an ingenious chimney system to minimize the risk of enemy detection. The underground city church could hold up to 400 people. Moreover, there was even a prison underground.
Underground Naur is typical of the North of France, whose inhabitants were constantly faced with enemy raids. There are 74 such shelters in total.

Underground Beijing

Underground cities were built not only in antiquity. The 20th century was marked by the most terrible wars in the history of mankind and the invention of nuclear weapons, which led to the construction of underground shelters around the world. One of the most famous of these structures is the underground city near Beijing. It was built between 1969 and 1979, when there was a danger of a nuclear war between China and the USSR. Underground Beijing was supposed to accommodate up to 40 percent of the city's population, and its total area is about 85 square kilometers. Shops, schools, hospitals, restaurants - all the traditional urban facilities - have been built underground in the Chinese capital.
Today, most of Beijing's underground is closed. But many underground spaces have been turned into shopping and office centers, others are used as cheap apartments, hostels and hotels. Until now, the authorities of the Chinese capital are regularly monitoring the state of the giant underground shelter.

Burlington

The danger of nuclear war led to the construction of a huge underground shelter in Great Britain. In the 1950s, the Burlington bunker was built near the town of Corsham in Wiltshire, with a capacity of 4,000 people. In the event of a nuclear strike, Burlington was supposed to be a safe haven for government officials who were seriously considering running the country from the ground. The bunker was designed for three months of fully autonomous existence. A pub was even built underground.
However, already in the late 1960s, it became clear that the evacuation of the government to Burlington would be impossible, since the speed of approach of Soviet strategic missiles was reduced to several minutes.
Today the British bunker has been declassified, and options for its commercial use are being sought. One of them is to transform Burlington into the largest wine cellar in Europe.

Coober Pedy

Not all underground cities in the world today have changed their functional significance. For example, in the Australian town of Coober Pedy, half of the inhabitants still live underground. This city was founded in 1915, around the world's largest deposit of precious opals. From the language of the Australian aborigines "Coober Pedy" is translated as "white man's hole."
The decision to live underground in Coober Pedy is influenced by the climate: frequent sandstorms and heat make life on the surface unpleasant. And if today the situation is saved by air conditioners, then a hundred years ago the only option was to build their homes underground, where the temperature is kept at 22 degrees all year round. The overwhelming majority of the city's residents are engaged in opal mining, so underground houses are often directly connected to mines.
Today, half of Coober Pedy's inhabitants live on the surface, but many continue to live underground.

Moreover, the story of its discovery is quite interesting in itself. No, it was not archaeologists or historians who discovered it first. It is believed that it was accidentally discovered by one of the villagers, when, having started repairs in his house, he demolished one of the walls and discovered a passage leading to an underground labyrinth.

Derinkuyu - (from the tour. Derinkuyu - "deep well") - an ancient multi-tiered underground city, the largest cave settlement in Cappadocia accessible to tourists