People have lived in this hole for 101 years
29.05.2020 09:29
In the middle of the Australian desert, lies this inconspicuous-looking hole.
To the untrained eye it looks like nothing at all, but just round the corner is another entrance that begins to reveal what actually lies beneath.
The dusty door leads down to Coober Pedy, a whole town located deep under the outback in South Australia.
Originally established as an opal mining town, the unusual village is home to 3,500 people.
Yet from the surface you would never know anyone lived in the barren landscape.
The unassuming community lies in the south-east of a desert, which is as big as France and Germany combined.
The underground network stretches for miles under the red soil and is made up of tunnels and homes – complete with all the normal furnishings.
There is also five churches, a restaurants and hotel rooms for people who want to experience life 'down under'.
And if that isn't roughing it enough there is a campsite beneath the desert too.
So, why is there an underground town? Well, way back in 1915 a father and son found the site while searching for gold.
While they didn't find what they were looking for, they stumbled across opal, which then became a popular stone across the world.
However, the intense heat was too much to take so the duo took shelter in the mines.
As miners came to dig for the precious stone the village grew until there were around 1,500 homes or "dugouts" below the sandy landscape.
Its name, which was originally 'Kupa Piti', means "white man in a hole". Today Coober Pedy is the main provider of opal worldwide, but it is just as famous for it's underground abodes.
(dailystar.co.uk)
www.ann.az
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