9 Responses to “Underground Wonders”

1. kirk citron Says:
   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

2. Stewart Brand Says:
   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.

3. Fr. Stephen Supica Says:
   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)

4. Fergus O'Reilly Says:
   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

5. Fergus O'Reilly Says:
   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

6. Ruben Says:
   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/

7. Caver Jim Says:
   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.

8. The Long Now Blog » Blog Archive » The slow burn Says:
   June 18th, 2008 at 3:44 am

   […] one of the more photogenic.  I will keep the list below updated as I find more (like I do with the Underground Wonders post), so feel free to make notes of ones you know about in the comments and they will be […]

9. Loganotron » Blog Archive » Stuff That Caught My Eye Says:
   June 24th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

   […] Long Now Foundation has a list of Underground Wonders. I’ve always been fascinated by caves and such. Check out their list and follow the links. […]