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.
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 3500 people in South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide along the Stuart Highway. The city is also known as the World Opal Capital, because it has one of the richest opal deposits, about 30% of the world's 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 hiking trails in 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.
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 the constant point of many tourist routes across 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 found an opal vein, along which they then crawled like 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 the central part of Australia, there is a small mining town of Coober Pedy, one of the main attractions of which is its underground houses. The city is known as world capital opals, because it is here that about 30% of the world's total reserves of these stones are concentrated, more than anywhere else on the planet. I suggest you take a short photo walk around the world capital of opals.
Most likely, the name of the city of Coober Pedy 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.
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 in Coober Pedy, 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.
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.
Roofs of Coober Pedy. A familiar sight and distinctive feature of the underground city is the ventilation holes sticking out of the ground.
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 nearly a century, this city has been the world's largest producer of high quality opals.
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.
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. "
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.
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.
Coober Pedy also has two churches underground, souvenir shops, a jewelry workshop, a museum and a bar.
Coober Pedy is located 846 kilometers north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.
Coober Pedy has a desert climate. In summer, from December to February, the average temperature is 30 ° C, and sometimes it reaches 40 ° C. At night, the temperature drops dramatically, to about 20 ° C. Sandstorms are also possible here.
An underground gift shop in Coober Pedy.
The townspeople escape from the heat by digging their houses underground.
Underground bar at Coober Pedy.
Such beautiful precious minerals are mined in Coober Pedy - a city that is called the "world capital of opals".
Some descendants of prospectors prefer to decorate their underground houses "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 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 more than 45 nationalities live in the city, but the majority 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 found an opal vein, along which they then crawled like 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 him - 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 and a new mini-mound is obtained - a waste heap.
There is a huge sign with a blower car at the entrance to the city.
