From Cisterns to Temples, These Twelve Underground Worlds Are Open for Exploring

Photo caption: Sleeping alcove at Forestiere Underground Gardens at West Shaw Avenue, Fresno, California. Photo credit: Carol M, Highsmith via the Library of Congress. Public Domain. Article by Shoshi Parks. Smithsonian Magazine – July 24, 2024.

Although the lives of humankind play out on the surface of the Earth, for millennia people have explored what lies beneath. Some had a practical reason for venturing underground—quarrying stone for building material, digging out cisterns or mining salt. Others were drawn there for spiritual purposes, building shrines or transforming natural caves into temples of worship. […]

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