In which city do people live underground. and got the best answer

Answer from Dark Knight[guru]
Coober Pedy (28°56′ S 134°45′ E  / 28.933333° S 134.75° E (G)-28.933333, 134.75) - a small town of 3,500 people in South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The city is also known as the Opal Capital of the World because it has one of the richest opal deposits, containing about 30% of the world's opal reserves. Common opal was first discovered in Australia in 1849 during the gold rush, but noble opal was not found at Coober Pedy until 1915. The name Coober Pedy is translated from the Australian Aboriginal language (kupa piti), as "white man's hole" or "white man underground".
Located in a sparsely populated area of ​​Australia hundreds of kilometers from the nearest settlement, Coober Pedy is located on the Stewart Range in South Australia, on the eastern edge of the Great Victoria Desert, where Railway from Alice Springs. Due to the harsh temperature regime and the prevailing mining industry, people constantly live underground in caves, in the shafts of mines left after mining. Standard bedrooms in a home cave with a hall, kitchen and bathroom are located in caves drilled inside the mountain, similar to houses on the surface. Thus, a constant optimum temperature is maintained, while on the surface it reaches 40 degrees Celsius (maximum 55 degrees), at this temperature many household appliances become unusable. But relative humidity does not often reach 20% on hot days.
Much of Coober Pedy's attraction is inside the mines, the cemetery and the underground churches. The first trees that could be seen in the city were welded from pieces of iron. The city has local golf courses with moving grass and golfers line small pieces of "turf" around for the first hit.
Coober Pedy is included in many tourist routes across Australia. Movies such as Mad Max 3: Under Thunderdome, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Pitch Black have been filmed against the backdrop of Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy hosted the second season of The Amazing Race. In the area of ​​Coober Pedy, approximately in 2012, they are going to conduct an experiment-exercise of an expedition to Mars. Also on the edge of town is the world's largest livestock farm and the world's longest "Australian" fence.
With the funds from the development of opals, about 30 million dollars a year, city residents could annually buy the world's largest Ruslan aircraft, which will fit the entire population of Coober Pedy [source?] .
An article about the city underground in 1927 and the people living in it, like rabbits, served as the appearance in 1937, the second most popular after the Bible, the literary work of J. R. R. Tolkien "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" [source?] .

Answer from DEMON[master]
in Afghanistan, they have villages there, and they live underground

Answer from Dmitry Ryzhnikov[active]
To Tokyo

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

In one of the driest parts of Australia, where instead of rain there are sandstorms, and there is no water even underground, the Australians have equipped an underground city with all the attributes of social life.

In the state of South Australia, on the eastern border of the Great Victoria Desert is the city of Coober Pedy. It got its name from the aborigines, who called the settlement of new Australians in their ancestral lands "the white man's hole". And the city itself arose as a settlement of miners. In 1915, noble opal was discovered in the Stewart Range, and later it turned out that layers of precious stone lie here, amounting to 30% of the world's reserves.

From the heat underground

Climatic conditions of Coober Pedi are very severe. Exhausting heat during the day gives way to a sharp drop in temperature at night. The temperature difference reaches 20 degrees. Clouds of flies stick to the surface of a person. In addition, sandstorms often occur. To hide from the heat and all-penetrating sand, the first settlers of the mining village began to equip their homes in the worked-out mines. Features of the development of the opal deposit required laying shallow horizontal mines in the form of tunnels with branches. Miners with their families began to settle in such sleeves.

Under the ground, real apartments of several rooms were equipped. To keep cool, one or two windows were usually cut through near the front door, thus the air temperature was naturally maintained at about 22-24 degrees.

Churches, shops, workshops, a cemetery were built underground.

Today, a few residents of the city live both in underground dwellings and in above-ground ones, with air conditioners installed to create a comfortable atmosphere. The dug houses are fully equipped with modern means of comfort - sewerage, electricity, water supply. There is even a choice in interior decoration - natural, when the walls of rooms cut in stone are simply covered with a special compound for cleanliness, and modern - stone walls are sheathed with plasterboard, and such a house is indistinguishable from other houses in Australia.

main treasure

As already mentioned, the city arose on a deposit of opals. There is a museum, shops, hotels, a small local airport. Feature films are often shot in fantastic surrounding landscapes. In the city and its environs, the surviving remains of scenery, various mechanisms and aircraft remind of this.

But the main treasure in these desert lands is water. The nearest artesian well was dug 25 km from Coober Pedy. No matter how much they searched, there was no water. In the old days, water was brought here by pack caravans and it was worth its weight in gold. Modern residents of the city receive water from a laid water pipe, but its price is much higher than in other regions of the country.

• Iron trees grow in the city - decoration with familiar forms
• The most common form of vegetation is cacti.
• Dug out underground houses are called Dugout
• Churches are open for free visits, the main thing when leaving is not to forget to turn off the lights, which is what the signs at the entrance ask for
• The small population of the city consists of 45 nationalities.
• Blower - a machine-vacuum cleaner for sucking rock from the mine to the surface

How to get there

Coober Pedy is located off the Stewart Highway between Adelaide and Alice Springs. The nearest city, Port Augusta, is 500 kilometers away.

Coober Pedy is a convenient place to take a tour on the way to the Red Center from Adelaide. If desired, in the underground city, you can stay overnight in a local underground hotel. If you are traveling in Australia, you will certainly use the Stewart Highway, which crosses the mainland from south to north, passing through the states of South Australia and the Northern Territories, it is simply impossible to drive past Coober Pedy.

Older people probably remember the Soviet film "Kin-Dza-Dza". There was an episode where the main characters are brought to the city. But there is no city as such. There are only small pipes sticking out in the middle of the desert landscape. The people in this film (at least some of them) lived underground, and the pipes served for ventilation. Entire settlements lived literally in the ground, only occasionally getting out to the surface.

So the movie city has a very real prototype. This is the mining town of Coober Pedy, located roughly in the center of the state of South Australia. It lies on the Stuart mountain range, 300 kilometers from national park Lake Air. The surroundings of the city are a deserted and deserted landscape. There are sparsely populated areas for hundreds of kilometers around. Adelaide (the state's largest city and the fifth largest in Australia) is 850 kilometers south along the Stewart Highway.

Coober Pedy on the map

• Geographic coordinates -29.010474, 134.757343
• Distance from the capital of Australia Canberra is about 1550 km
• Distance to the nearest airport Seduna is about 360 km

All distances are "in a straight line"

And people there really live underground, in specially dug apartments. The decision to live under a layer of earth is dictated by local natural conditions. During the day, the air warms up to 40 ° C, and by night the temperature can drop to 7 ° C. Sudden temperature changes make life on the surface not entirely comfortable. And periodic sandstorms further exacerbate the situation.

Here we could not help but deviate from the topic. It seemed to us that these "terribly harsh", downright unbearable conditions are not so terrible. Read about the Pole of Cold in Russian Oymyakon. Here the conditions are really unrealistically difficult. There, even tires on cars can crumble like chocolate, and temperatures of minus 40-50 are quite common.

What, in principle, forced people to go underground in Coober Pedy? After all, Australia is a wonderful continent, there are a lot of places much more suitable for life. Take at least Hyams Beach - a beach with perfectly white sand. Dig in the sand and watch the ocean. Or Fraser Island, where the sand has been fighting the rainforest for hundreds of years. But no, people are drawn to the desert, and even underground. The answer is really simple. There are huge reserves of precious minerals. Opal is why people still live here. It has been mined here since 1915.

This is what opal looks like

In general, for the first time a simple opal was found in these places in 1849 at the height of the gold rush. And full-scale development of deposits began in 1915, when noble opal was already found here. According to scientists, about 30% of the world's reserves of this valuable mineral are located here. Therefore, Coober Pedy is also called the Opal Capital of the World. Opal is widely used in jewelry.

The miners adapted to live in dugouts. The temperature was almost always around 22°C. Often, miners went to work directly from their homes; for this, tunnels were dug directly into the mine. The workers dug entire houses underground, and lived well in them. In addition to dwellings, there is a bar, a museum, churches, an art gallery and even a hotel for tourists who want to experience what it is like to live underground.

The development of technology and technology has allowed more than half of the inhabitants to move to the surface, but there are citizens who still live underground. And they live very well. Their house has everything you need for a comfortable stay - kitchen, living room, bedrooms and even bathrooms. Naturally there is electricity, running water and sewerage. They have such apartments called "Dugout" and are made in two versions. Natural and modern. In the first version, the walls of the housing are only strengthened with special impregnations or an emulsion of ordinary PVA glue. This prevents them from shedding and eliminates dust. In addition, this design creates the illusion of primitiveness. You can take pigments and spread them on the walls of mammoths, or in our case kungur. Modern design involves the creation of familiar rooms, but only underground. In this case, the floor, walls and ceiling are leveled, plastered and poured. The result is a completely modern home. Its undergroundness is betrayed only by the absence of windows. At the beginning, according to tradition, two windows were made near the front door, but then the temperature balance in the room was disturbed. However, now this problem is solved by installing an air conditioner. Everything else, as in any modern house. Sometimes both styles are combined and you can get from the trendy and modern living room to the primitive bedroom.

• translated from the language of the local tribe Coober Pedy means "white man's hole" or "underground white man"
• extraterrestrial desert landscapes have become natural backdrops for some famous films. In particular, scenes from the blockbusters Mad Max. Under Thunderdome" and "Black Hole" were filmed here. Nearby, even a whole starship from the movie "Black Hole" has been preserved.

• The city hosts a number of festivals: the Coober Pedy Race, the Queen of the Desert, and the Opal Festival. And yet all the inhabitants gather annually to celebrate the end of summer with noisy celebrations.
• as of 2011, a little less than 1,700 people lived in the town
• in 1956, the largest opal was found in the Coober Pedy area. Its dimensions are 28 x 12 x 11.5 cm. Weight 17,000 carats or 3.45 kilograms familiar to us. The find was valued at 2.5 million Australian dollars. They named this nugget the Olympic Australian Opal (in the original The Olympic Australis Opal) in honor of the then Olympic Games in Melbourne.
• there is an underground cemetery in the city
• There is no water at all in Coober Pedy. Many times people tried to drill wells, but they never managed to get to the water. The region cannot boast of heavy rainfall - they usually fall no more than 150 mm per year. Water is supplied by a 24 km long pipeline from a small settlement nearby (this settlement could not be found on the map, if you have data on this, please let us know)

Coober Pedy photo

We invite you to look underground and visit the extraordinary underground city of Coober Pedy, where about 2 thousand people currently live.

At first, when you find yourself on these sun-hot red plains of Australia and you see a not very rich in buildings, an absolutely “clean” landscape, it seems that the place is completely lifeless. But in fact, there is a stunning mysterious town called Coober Pedy.

And what makes it special is the fact that this city is underground.

There are no trees here, and the sun bakes with merciless force, but many kilometers of tunnels are laid underground and furnished, as if in ordinary residential buildings, rooms.

However, there is also accommodation for tourists coming here. From this corridor, the doors just lead to the guest rooms.

The locals settled here quite comfortably. Some houses are only half underground, which only adds to their uniqueness. It is worth noting that in terms of comfort they are in no way inferior to ordinary modern houses.

The history of the origin of the original city began in 1915, when a father and son ended up here, traveling in search of gold.

They did not find gold here, but they found beautiful opals, which quickly gained no less popularity.

The miners who came here could not withstand the high temperatures of the local climate and therefore built their houses not above the ground, but right between the mines.

They began to dig long tunnels, so that over time, about 1,500 dugout houses appeared in Coober Pedy.

In the modern world, Coober Pedy has long been the main supplier of opals. However, people come here no longer to look at precious stones, but to see strange dugouts, the dwellings of people living here.

The name of the city means "white man's hole", this expression appeared here in the 1920s.

In addition to mines, hotels and houses, there is also a beautiful church underground in Coober Pedy.

As well as an underground bookstore.

And an underground jewelry store offering a charming opal from the mines next door.

Undoubtedly, you should also visit the underground bar to have a drink with friends.

And then go upstairs and play golf on a specially equipped site.

Australia. What do we know about the "Green Continent"? Cute koalas and kangaroos, natives, boomerangs, plastic banknotes... But Australia is also a land of opals. And the small town of Coober Pedy in the state of South Australia is its opal capital. It is believed that the opal stone calms the nerves, heals the heart, warns the owner about the presence of poison in food, and even gives the gift of prophecy! ..

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: A unique boulder opal found by miners in Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is the capital of Australia's "opal rush". © Dmitry Chulov.

The man who first called Australia the "Green Continent" must have been joking. It is green only along the coast, and in the center is a barren desert, the bottom of a parched ancient inland sea. Right in the middle of it is Coober Pedy.

Center map

Traffic

By bike

Passing through

South Australia is one of the driest regions of the Fifth Continent. Most of its territory is covered with endless deserts, scrubs and salt marshes. But it is in its depths that the real underground pantry of the country is located.

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: The colorful hills of the Brayways Nature Reserve at sunset. The bowels of the earth under these hills hide great riches. © Dmitry Chulov.

The mining town is lost in the endless desert. Instead of trees, grasses and flowers, there are stones, sand and heat below plus 50. Episodes of films about life after a global catastrophe were filmed here more than once. Even the inscriptions on the fences here are appropriate: “Welcome to Hell!”, Which means “ Welcome to Hell!»

It is located 10 hours north of Adelaide. Here, in this sun-scorched, dusty city, seekers of happiness and adventurers from all over the world come together. After all, Coober Pedy is the capital of Australia's ongoing "opal fever".

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: A miners' car parked in the desert at the entrance to Australia's opal fever capital. © Dmitry Chulov.

Around Coober Pedy, like in a minefield, there are signs. " Don't go near the mines!' are the stern warnings. The area of ​​opal mines stretches for tens of kilometers around. Over the years of fever here have dug about one and a half million mines! The local landscape is called by the locals " moon valley».

Coming to Australia was his childhood dream. Two years after arriving at Green Continent» Gennady Karpenko ended up in scorched desert. He is a carver: he looks for opals and processes them in his workshop.

Australia produces 95% of all opals in the world. This stone has been familiar to locals since time immemorial. True, Australian aborigines have always bypassed opals - they believe that a spirit with a human head and a snake's body lives underground, luring people with the magical brilliance of multi-colored stones.

Opals were found here by accident in 1915. Now Coober Pedy is the richest deposit in the country. Its name comes from the distorted "Kupa Piti", which in the language of the Australian aborigines means ... "white people in a hole."

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: A sign warning that the surrounding desert has been spontaneously dug up by opal miners. © Dmitry Chulov.

On the belt - a battery, on the forehead - a flashlight, in the hands - an ultraviolet lamp - the standard equipment of the local miner. Gennady agreed to show us the places where he had recently managed to find large opals. There are no security guarantees. Any mine here can collapse at any moment. The search for opals is a dangerous business in which everyone works at their own peril and risk!

Gennady, opal carver: “Crack on this side, see? Sometimes it can be dangerous, everything can collapse here.”

Opals in Coober Pedy are sought in mines at a depth of 25-30 meters. Someone rises to the surface for years with nothing, and someone can turn into a millionaire in one day ...

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Gennady Karpenko looking for opals in a mine. © Dmitry Chulov.

In the face, Gennady knows every turn of the adit - he spent more than one day here, underground, with a lantern and a pickaxe.

Gennady, opal carver: “I found a few opals in the rock up there, a little - here ...”

His favorite sound in the mine is the crunch of breaking glass. With this, opals are taken out of the rock. After all, opal, in fact, is glass sintered by nature, due to the presence of various elements and inclusions, it plays with bright sparks in the light. This stone is better visible in ultraviolet light. Therefore, Gennady now and then turns on a blue lamp in the darkness of the mine.

Gennady, opal carver: “Sometimes when people blast rock in a mine, then they can miss some of the opals. And you, following them, through their garbage, you can find a vein that will bring 3, 5 10 thousand dollars ... "

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Mining equipment at work in one of the opal mines. © Dmitry Chulov.

From this one of the niches, by laying explosives, his neighbor miners recently took out opals for ... 380 thousand dollars!

Gennady, opal carver: “No one here asks anyone how much you found, how you sold - this is not accepted in Coober Pedy. There is a lot of cash in this business!”

There are not many places left in the world where you can legally get rich in just one day! Some call it "opal fever", others - fortune, others - playing roulette. In the face, you can walk a few centimeters from the most valuable stone and not find it. And you can accidentally stumble upon an opal vein!

Gennady, opal carver:“When from the wall, where there is nothing, from a small crack suddenly opens such, such a thickness of opal! When they are with color, you just stop breathing! You just forget how you breathe!”

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Prospector Rade shows opalized shells he found in the ground. © Dmitry Chulov.

Dust, wind and an excavator devouring tens of liters of diesel fuel per day. Many opal seekers, having arrived briefly spend in Coober Pedy all life. You just need to stake out a plot - anyone can do it. Father and son Rade and Roger open pit opals. From the age of 12 (!) my son masterfully manages the excavator bucket. The father, who came here in search of happiness back in 1967, is now over 70. He carefully examines the stones below so as not to miss the cobblestone, which may contain opal, relying on experience and intuition.

Rade, the opal seeker:“I have found black, pink, green, crystal, all kinds of opals. True, I was not as lucky as other miners. I had enough to pay my bills and to live. I must be the biggest loser of all the old people that work at Coober Pedy!”

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: The famous boulder opal found in Coober Pedy. Boulder is a type of opal in the form of a layer in the rock. The world's largest boulders are found in Coober Pedy. © Dmitry Chulov.

The pride of Rade and Roger is a huge " boulder” is the opal they keep at home. There is no other like it in the world! They are in no hurry to sell it and show it only on special occasions.

In small Coober Pedy, there are several dozen shops that sell opals. The most valuable of them are pink and black. Depending on the size and quality, the price of processed opals can reach several tens of thousands of dollars!

Dubica works in one of Coober Pedy's opal shops. Prices here are lower than in the big cities of Australia: here the stones are sold by those who find and process them themselves.

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: A polished opal that sparkles with multi-coloured sparks in the light. © Dmitry Chulov.

Dubica, salesperson: “This stone is a crystal opal, large in size, transparent and clear. Look, you can see all the colors of the rainbow in it, and the more red there is in the opal, the more valuable it is.”

This stone glows devilishly in the light, its flickering enchants. But during processing, the opal loses up to 2/3 of its volume, and may even crack, losing its value. Opal is as fragile as glass. It is enough to drop it, and the holographic beauty can break into thousands of fragments. Therefore, only experienced craftsmen can work with opal.

COOBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: A cut opal in the hands of a carver. © Dmitry Chulov.

Gennady, opal carver: “If the stone is very expensive, sometimes it can be up to $1,000 per carat, it is very difficult to cut it…”

Cutting is the most critical stage in the processing of opal. Sometimes the master looks at the stone for hours, not knowing how to approach it.

Gennady, opal carver:“Processing an opal is always a surprise, a lottery. You can just cut and get a colorless stone in two parts, and sometimes you see how the stone begins to play in your hands!

Carvers say that opal should be felt with hands, only then the master will be lucky in his work. And luck is just what the Australian town of Coober Pedy, gripped by the “opal fever” of our time, needs so much!

You can watch the video version of this article in the form of a report about Coober Pedy, filmed by me for the program "Their Morals" (NTV), you can here:

Write in the comments what else would you like to know more about Australia?