Coober Pedy: Australia’s Underground City
Steve Collis/FlickrA hotel inside Coober Pedy in Australia.
Coober Pedy is a standout example on this list, as it is the one underground city that is still inhabited to this day. Unlike many other underground cities around the world, which have been long completely abandoned, Coober Pedy still houses around 3,500 people of 45 different nationalities.
Most of its inhabitants are the descendants of Europeans who arrived in the 20th century, hoping to make their fortune capitalizing on opals.
About 150 million years ago, Coober Pedy was the bed of a vast ocean, where the tide brought minerals from the sandstone seabed into the cracks of the Earth. Over the millennia, the silica deposits left there hardened gradually, creating thousands of opals that remain embedded in the rock.
Eventually, a massive opal mine was established in the region, with the town of Coober Pedy being officially established in 1915. News of the town quickly spread after a 14-year-old child named Willie Hutchinson struck not gold, but opals, while out with his father and a group of prospectors.
Suddenly, droves of people were flocking to the town hoping to replicate Hutchinson’s good fortune. However, life wasn’t easy in the region. For starters, there was very little rain and the temperatures above ground often reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit or sometimes even higher.
But the opals were plentiful, and some people weren’t willing to give up on their potential riches. They hatched a unique plan to beat the heat — and they began digging a new city below the surface of the Earth.
The early inhabitants took a vote to name their town Coober Pedy, derived from the Aboriginal term kupa-piti, meaning “white man in a hole.”
Living underground has afforded a few benefits to the inhabitants of Coober Pedy, too. The temperatures underground are always around 74 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning their dugout homes don’t require air conditioning, nor are they prone to the dangers of the dust storms above ground.
And they are not short on luxuries, either. Residents carve out whatever they need into the sandstone of their homes, including bookshelves and tables. Some residents have even carved out underground swimming pools.
Incredibly, the network of tunnels grows each year.
