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 were used for ventilation. Whole 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 approximately in the middle of the state. South australia... It lies on the Stewart Ridge, 300 kilometers from National park Lake Eyre. The outskirts of the city are a deserted and deserted landscape. There is a sparsely populated area for hundreds of kilometers. Before Adelaide (the most big city state and the fifth largest in Australia) you need to travel 850 kilometers south on the Stewart Highway.
Coober Pedy on the map
- Geographic coordinates -29.010474, 134.757343
- Distance from the capital of Australia, Canberra, about 1550 km
- Distance to the nearest airport Cedune approximately 360 km
All distances are indicated "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 the locals natural conditions... During the day, the air warms up to 40 o C, and by night the temperature can drop to 7 o C. Sharp 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. The conditions there are really unrealistically difficult. There, even tires on cars can crumble like chocolate, and the temperature in minus 40-50 is quite usual.
What, in principle, forced people to go underground in Coober Pedy? After all, Australia is a wonderful continent, there are a lot of places that are much more suitable for life. Take at least Hyams Beach - a beach with perfectly white sand. Swarm in the sand and watch the ocean. Or Fraser Island, where 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 the precious mineral. Opal is why people still live here. It has been mined here since 1915.
This is what an opal looks like In general, for the first time a simple opal was found in these places back in 1849 at the height of the gold rush. Full-scale development of the deposits began in 1915, when noble opal was found here. According to scientists, about 30% of all world reserves of this valuable mineral are located here. Therefore, Coober Pedy is also called the World Capital of Opal. Opal is widely used in jewelry.
The miners have adapted to live in dugouts. The temperature there was almost always about 22 ° C. Often, miners went to work right from home, for this they dug tunnels directly into the mine. The workers dug entire houses underground, and they lived well in them. In addition to the 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 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. They have everything in their house for a comfortable stay - a kitchen, a living room, bedrooms and even bathrooms. Naturally there is electricity, running water and sewerage. They call such apartments "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 removes dust. In addition, this design creates the illusion of primitiveness. You can take pigments and put them on the walls of mammoths, or in our case, a kungaroo. 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 underground is betrayed only by the absence of windows. In the beginning, by tradition, two windows were made near the front door, but then the temperature balance in the room was disturbed. True, now this problem is solved by installing an air conditioner. Everything else is the same as in any modern home. Sometimes both styles are combined and you can get from the ultra-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 the Dome of Thunder "and" Black Hole "were filmed here. There is even an entire starship from the movie "Black Hole" preserved nearby.
- the city hosts a number of festivals: the Coober Pedy Race, the Queen of the Desert and the Opal Festival. And still all residents 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 is 17000 carats or 3.45 kilograms familiar to us. The find was estimated at 2.5 million Australian dollars. This nugget was named the Olympic Australis Opal (originally 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 got to the water. The region cannot boast of abundant rainfall - they usually fall no more than 150 mm per year. Water comes through a 24 km long water 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
They live underground, grow cacti in their gardens, and play golf at night - this is how the life of the inhabitants of a small town in australian wilderness... We are talking about the world capital of opals - the mining town of Coober Pedy. Residents of a town in the southern Australian desert, with temperatures sometimes exceeding 40 ° C in the shade in summer, have found an easy way to cope with the heat. In their houses, even in the most terrible heat, it is always cool, but not at all because they use air conditioners, moreover, they do not need to wash their windows or hang blinds on them in order to avoid the prying glances of their neighbors, but all because the inhabitants of Coober Pedi build their houses ... underground.
Let's take a look into the opal underground city of Coober Pedy.
Most likely, the name of the city is associated with its unusual houses underground. In the Aboriginal language, kupa-piti, from which the name Coober Pedy is derived, means "the hole of the white man." The city is home to about 1,700 people, who are mainly engaged in the extraction of opals, and their homes are nothing more than underground "holes" made in sandstone at a depth of 2.5 to 6 meters. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).
It is located in South Australia, on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, in one of the continent's most desolate and sparsely populated areas. At the beginning of the 20th century, mining of noble opals began here, 30% of the world's reserves are concentrated in the Coober Pedy territory. Due to the constant heat, drought and frequent sandstorms, prospectors and their families initially began to settle in dwellings carved into the mountainside - often it was possible to get into the mine right from home. The temperature in such an “apartment” did not exceed 22 ° C all year round, and the level of comfort was not much inferior to traditional “ground” houses - there were bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. But no more than two windows were made - otherwise it would get too hot in summer.
Due to the lack of underground sewerage, the toilet and kitchen in the houses are located immediately at the entrance, i.e. at ground level. Bedrooms, other rooms and corridors are usually dug deeper. The ceilings in the large rooms are supported by columns up to 1 meter in diameter. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).
Building a home in Coober Pedy may even make its owner wealthy, as it is home to the largest deposit of precious opals. Deposits in Australia, mainly in Coober Pedy, account for 97 percent of the world's production of this mineral. Several years ago, while drilling an underground hotel, stones worth about $ 360,000 were found. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).
Roofs of Coober Pedy. A familiar sight and distinctive feature of the underground city are vents sticking out of the ground. (Photo: Robyn Brody / flickr.com).
The opal deposit at Coober Pedy was discovered in 1915. A year later, the first miners began to arrive there. It is believed that about 60 percent of Coober Pedy's residents were from southern and eastern Europe who came there after World War II to work in the mines. For almost a hundred years, this city has been the world's largest producer High Quality opals. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).
Since the 1980s, when the underground hotel was built in Coober Pedy, it has been visited by thousands of tourists every year. One of the most visited places in the city of opals was the house of the recently deceased resident of the city, nicknamed Crocodile Harry, an eccentric, alcohol lover and adventurer who became famous for his numerous love affairs.In the photo: the underground church at Coober Pedy. (Photo: Jacqui Barker / flickr.com).
Both the city and its suburbs, for various reasons, are very photogenic, which is why they attract filmmakers there. Coober Pedy became the filming location for the 2006 Australian drama Opal Dream. Also in the underground houses of the city were filmed scenes for the film "Mad Max. Under the dome of thunder. " (Photo: donmcl / flickr.com).
Average annual rainfall in Coober Pedy is only 175 mm (in the middle lane in Europe, for example, about 600 mm). This is one of the driest areas in Australia. It almost never rains here, so the vegetation is very sparse. There are no tall trees in the city, only rare shrubs and cacti grow. (Photo: Rich2012)
Residents, however, do not complain about the lack of outdoor activities. They spend their free time playing golf, although because of the heat they have to play at night. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).
Coober Pedy also has two churches underground, souvenir shops, a jewelry workshop, a museum and a bar. (Photo: Nicholas Jones / Flickr.com).
Coober Pedy is located 846 kilometers north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. (Photo: Georgie Sharp / Flickr.com).
Coober Pedy has a desert climate. In the summer, from December to February, average temperature is 30 ° C, and sometimes reaches 40 ° C. At night, the temperature drops dramatically, to about 20 ° C. Sandstorms are also possible here. (Photo: doctor_k_karen / Flickr.com).
An underground gift shop in Coober Pedy. (Photo: Lodo27 / wikimedia).
The townspeople escape from the heat by digging their houses underground. (Photo: Lodo27 / wikimedia).
Underground bar at Coober Pedy. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).
Such beautiful precious minerals are mined in Coober Pedy - a city that is called the "world capital of opals". (Photo: James St. John / Flickr.com).
Some descendants of prospectors prefer to decorate their underground homes "a la natural" - they cover the walls and ceiling with PVA solution to get rid of dust, while retaining the natural color and texture of natural stone. Supporters of modern solutions in the interior cover the walls and ceiling with plaster, after which the underground dwelling becomes almost indistinguishable from the usual. Both those and others do not refuse such a pleasant little thing as an underground pool - in one of the hottest places on the planet, this is a particularly pleasant "luxury".
In addition to dwellings, Coober Pedy has underground shops and museums, galleries and workshops, restaurants and a hotel, a cemetery and churches (including the Orthodox one!). But there are few trees and flowers here - only cacti and other succulents can endure the hot, arid climate of these places. In spite of this. there are golf courses with rolling grass in the city.
Coober Pedy is a staple of many tourist itineraries in Australia. Interest in the underground city is fueled by the fact that films such as Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Black Hole were filmed in Coober Pedy. And on the edge of the Opal Capital of the World is the world's largest livestock farm and the well-known Dingo Fence, which stretches for 8,500 kilometers.
The city is famous for its opals, it is the capital of the opal-stone, shining with all the colors of the rainbow. The development of opals is a little less than 100 years old; their deposits were accidentally discovered while searching for water in 1915. Noble opal is distinguished by an iridescent play of colors, the cause of which is the diffraction of light on a spatial grating and its value is determined not by its size, but by a unique play of color. The more rays, the more expensive the opal. One of the aboriginal legends says that "a long time ago, the spirits stole all the colors from the rainbow and put them in a stone - opal," according to the other - that the Creator descended from heaven to earth and where his foot stepped stones appeared, shimmering with all colors rainbows. Opals are mined only by private entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, this industry brings the Australian economy about $ 30 million annually.
The Coober Pedy area is one of the driest, deserted and sparsely populated areas in Australia. On average, only about 150 mm fall out per year. precipitation, and very large differences in day and night temperatures.
If you happen to fly over Coober Pedy, then you will not see the buildings we are accustomed to, but only heaps of rock with a thousand pits and hills against the backdrop of a rocky red desert, which creates an unearthly landscape that staggers the imagination. Each mound-cone with a hole in the middle, visible on the surface, is connected by a shaft to the underworld.
Even the first settlers realized that due to unfavorable weather conditions when the earth heats up in the sun during the day and on the surface the heat reaches 40 degrees Celsius, and at night the temperature drops sharply to 20 degrees (and sandstorms are also possible) - you can live underground in the shafts of mines after the extraction of opals. The constant temperature of underground houses is kept in the region of + 22-24 degrees at any time of the year. Today, the city is home to over 45 nationalities, but most are Greeks. The population of the city is 1,695 people.
Water comes from drilled 25 km. from the city of an artesian well and relatively expensive. There is no common power system in Coober Pedy. Electricity is generated by diesel generators and heating is provided by solar water heaters. At night, when the heat subsides, residents play golf with balls glowing in the dark.
Previously, the development of opals was carried out manually - with picks, shovels, and the rock was pulled out with buckets until they were found opal vein, on which they then crawled on their bellies. Almost all the mines are shallow and the main passages in them are laid by boring machines that break through horizontal tunnels the height of a man's height and from it - branches in different directions. These are almost home-made devices - the engine and gearbox from a small truck. Then the so-called "blower" is used - a machine with a powerful compressor installed on it, which, like a vacuum cleaner, sucks the rock and boulders to the surface through a pipe lowered into the mine, and when the compressor is turned off, the barrel opens: a new mini-mound is obtained - a waste heap.
There is a huge sign with a blower car at the entrance to the city.
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) - small town with a population of 3,500 in South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway (English). The city is also known as World capital opals, because here is one of the richest opal deposits, about 30% of the world's total reserves are concentrated here. Common opal was first discovered in Australia in 1849 during the gold rush, but noble opal was found in Coober Pedy only in 1915. The name Coober Pedy is translated from the language of the Australian aborigines (kupa piti) as "white man's hole" or "white man underground."
Located in sparsely populated area Australia, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest settlement, Coober Pedy is located on the Stewart Ridge in South Australia, on the eastern edge of the Great Victoria Desert, where it is not far from Railway from in 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. The standard home cave bedrooms with hall, kitchen and bathroom are located in caves drilled inside the mountain, similar to houses on the surface. This maintains a constant optimal temperature, while on the surface it reaches 40 degrees Celsius (maximum 55 degrees), at this temperature many household appliances become unusable. But the relative humidity does not often reach 20% on hot days.
Much of the interest in Coober Pedy is located inside the mines, cemetery and underground churches. The first trees that could be seen in the city were welded from pieces of iron. The town has local rolling-grass golf courses and golfers line small pieces of turf around for a first hit.
Coober Pedy is included in many tourist routes across Australia. Films such as Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Pitch Black were 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 funds from the development of opals, about $ 30 million a year, residents of the city could annually buy the world's largest aircraft Ruslan, which will accommodate 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 of the second most popular literary work after the Bible by JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings [source?] ...
Answer from 2 answers[guru]
Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: In which city do people live underground.
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 see a not very rich in buildings, 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 and rooms furnished, as if in ordinary residential buildings, have been laid underground.
However, there is also accommodation for tourists coming here. From this corridor, the doors lead directly to the guest rooms.
The locals settled here quite comfortably. Some houses are only half underground, which only adds to their uniqueness. It should be noted that in terms of the level 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 father and son found themselves 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, they no longer come here to look at precious stones, but to see strange dugouts, 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.
And also an underground bookstore.
And an underground jewelry store offering charming opal from the mines next door.
The underground bar is definitely worth a visit for a drink with friends.
And then go upstairs and play golf on a specially equipped area.
In one of the driest corners of Australia, where sandstorms take place instead of rains, and there is no water even underground, the Australians have equipped an underground city with all the trappings of social life.
Coober Pedy is located in the state of South Australia on the eastern border of the Great Victoria Desert. It got its name from the Aborigines, who called the settlement of the new Australians in their ancestral lands "the white man's hole." And the city itself arose as a village of miners. In 1915, noble opal was discovered in the Stewart Ridge, and later it turned out that layers of precious stone, amounting to 30% of the world's reserves, lie here.
From the heat underground
The climatic conditions of Coober Pedy are very harsh. The sweltering heat during the day gives way to a sharp drop in temperature at night. The temperature drop reaches 20 degrees. On the surface of a person, clouds of flies stick around. In addition, sandstorms often occur. To shelter from the heat and all-pervading sand, the first settlers of the mining village began to equip their homes in spent mines. The peculiarities of the development of the opal deposit required the construction of shallow horizontal shafts in the form of tunnels with branches. Miners with their families began to settle in such sleeves.
Real apartments of several rooms were equipped underground. To maintain coolness, one or two windows were usually cut through near the front door, so the air temperature was naturally maintained around 22-24 degrees.
Churches, shops, workshops, and a cemetery were built underground.
Nowadays, the few residents of the city live in both underground and above-ground dwellings, with air conditioning installed to create a comfortable atmosphere. The dug houses are fully equipped with modern comfort facilities - sewerage, electricity, running water. There is even a choice in the decoration of the premises - natural, when the walls of the rooms cut in stone are simply covered with a special compound for cleanliness, and modern - stone walls plasterboard sheathed, and such a home is indistinguishable from other homes in Australia.
The main treasure
As already mentioned, the city originated from an opal deposit. There is a museum, shops, hotels, a small local airport. Feature films are often filmed in the fantastic surrounding landscapes. In the city and its environs, the surviving remains of decorations, 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 looked, there was no water. In the old days, water was delivered here by pack caravans and it was valued at its weight in gold. Modern residents of the city receive water from a laid water pipeline, but its price is much higher than in other regions of the country.
- Iron trees grow in the city - decoration in familiar forms
- The most common form of vegetation is cacti.
- Dug underground houses are called Dugout
- Churches are open to free visits, the main thing is, when leaving, do not forget to turn off the light, which is requested by the signs at the entrance
- The small population of the city consists of 45 nationalities
- Bloer - a machine-vacuum cleaner for sucking rock from a mine to the surface
How to get there
Coober Pedy is adjacent to the Stewart Highway, between Adelaide and Alice Springs. The nearest town, Port Augusta, is 500 kilometers away.
Coober Pedy is a convenient excursion destination on the road 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, be sure to take 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.
