Underground Wonders
October 4th, 02007 by Alexander Rose 
Since we hope to build the space for the 10,000 Year Clock underground, for the last 10 years I have been collecting references and images of the great, ambitious and or inspiring underground spaces and stonework of the world (in some cases they are also lessons of what not to do). I thought I would list some of that collection here to share them, as well as ask for any recommendations or references you all might have. (please feel free to make suggestions in the comment section)
- 12th century underground church (France)
- St Patricks well by DaVinci in Orvieto Italy
- The 800 year old salt mines of Poland
- The Stremnaya cliff road in
BoliviaChina
- Anasazi Cliff Dwellings
- Petra
- Japanese Sewer System
- Cappadocia Turkey
- “7 Undergound Wonders of the World”
- The Mormon Geneological Vaults
- Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository
- Nuclear Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
- Cavern in Tennessee (I think)
- Stockholm Subway
- Mysterious underground spaces blog post
- Large holes in the ground
- The hanging temple in China
- Collection of cave photographs
- Heavenly Stairs
- Great shot of the “Hell Hole” cave
- Underground Moscow
- Niagara Falls aquaducts
- The Stone Work of Machu Picchu
October 4th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Lalibela, churches carved out of the rock in Ethiopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bete_Giyorgis_Lalibela_Ethiopia.jpg
October 6th, 2007 at 9:11 am
The Budapest underground tours (under the “7 Wonders” item) look worth taking, to compare the flashlight version with the public lighting version. I’ll bet the flashlight tour is more amazing.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
The rock-carved churches of Cappadocia, central Turkey, from probably the 700’s (see photos at http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/goreme_museum, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia, http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/IcelandGreeceTurkey/Turkey/Capadoccia/slideshow.htm)
October 8th, 2007 at 9:45 am
For the record, note that the photos labeled as “The Stremnaya cliff road in Bolivia” are actually of the Guoliang Tunnel in China, see pointers to the evidence here: http://rickmccharles.com/?p=1230
October 9th, 2007 at 4:45 am
There are also a number of particle physics experiments and detectors that are buried underground, some photogenic examples:
MINOS is a detector designed to study neutrino oscillations. Pictures here: http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/MINOS_photos/
The beast weighs 6,000 tons and is half a mile underground in the Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota. The cavern includes a wonderful painted mural across the raw rock wall: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/pdfs/200505/deconstruction_soudan_mural.pdf
Another example is the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector project located in the Mozumi Mine in Japan. The walls are covered in photomultiplier light detector tubes. The regular placement of these tubes make for stunning photographs of the underground space, it looks like something a Sci-Fi movie set designer would dream up. See Wikipedia for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Kamiokande pictures here: http://www-sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sk/gallery/index-e.html and video here: http://www-sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lib/video06/index.html
My favorite Super-K image is at the bottom of this page: http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2006/september-06-EdwardKearns.html
Some other examples of similar detectors and projects can be seen on the PBS Nova site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neutrino/detectors.html
October 11th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
The new Library of Congress audio-visual archives are set inside Pony Mountain in central Virginia. Over 90 miles of shelving housing nearly 6 million pieces of a/v history - much of it maintained at 25 degrees F. http://www.loc.gov/avconservation/
February 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Cavern in Tennessee { I Think} is Fantastic Pit, 586 ft. vertical drop in Ellisons Cave, in Walker County, Georgia.