When you think of underground cities, you may think of ancient underground cities, examples of which are also found in our country. These cities were often living quarters built to escape enemy attacks or to protect themselves from natural disasters. In some cases, these cities were ‘sacred’ areas.
But none of them were permanent and people continued to live above ground rather than underground, and to build their big cities above ground. So what was holding people back from living underground? If necessary, can we continue our lives without seeing the sky by leaving the above ground completely and building huge cities underground?
Now imagine a scenario where the human species has to live underground.
Let’s say something happened that we realized that a great danger was approaching to the planet. After 50 years, the above ground will turn into a place of doom and our only escape is to move underground… Actually, part of this scenario is real because 50 years from now it will probably be terrible to live above the ground, but whatever. , let’s say ‘let’s say’ to that part…
Let’s evaluate this scenario by ignoring countries, borders and economic inequalities. Because otherwise, low-population and rich developed countries can solve this problem relatively easily for themselves and leave the rest of the world to die.
Breathing underground and feeding yourself means a lot of money…
We can attribute our first justifications to meeting our most ‘indispensable’ needs above ground. First of all, we as humans need to breathe, and underground this wouldn’t be possible without advanced ventilation systems that are cumbersome and costly. Even to be able to breathe, it was necessary to establish special ventilation systems with super technologies and spend astonishing amounts of money on them. In addition, serious studies would have to be carried out by calculating the depth we need to descend and taking into account problems such as pressure and temperature…
Also, as humans, we get our food from above-ground sources. In other words, living underground means an extra costly process for food. Maybe we would definitely find a way to farm underground, but again, it would mean a new expense item. Or think about livestock activities… So feeding underground is not easy at all…
Hundreds of years ago, people living in the underground cities they built to escape their aggressive enemies were probably less picky about their dinners, and stood in a completely different place from us when it came to ‘comfort’. Perhaps what made them less compelling was the fact that they weren’t like us next to their obligations. And of course, in this scenario, they knew they could go out again…
It is not easy to leave the sunlight and our natural environment behind either…
Moreover, what we’re talking about here isn’t just a romantic ‘we can’t stop walking among lush trees with the sunshine warming our skin’ scenario. Sunlight, fresh air and ‘landscape’ mean a lot to people’s health.
Situations such as insufficient sunlight and staying indoors for a long time have serious negative effects on human health. It causes many psychological and physical diseases, from sleep disorders to hormonal imbalances.
In other words, if we want to live underground in a healthy way, we need to find permanent solutions to problems such as light, clean air and natural environment.
Our psychology will not only be affected by the lack of sun and fresh air…
The first thing that the thought of being underground means to most people is ‘death’. The underground is a dark, uncanny, dangerous place in our minds. What if we suddenly fall under hundreds of meters of soil and a wall above us? What if the underground city floods? How can we be saved?
Each of these questions may have clear answers from the power of engineering marvels. But how much is it possible to completely eliminate these fears, which are based on very primitive instincts and have already taken over our subconscious? Or how can we keep millions of people with claustrophobia peaceful underground?
It may be possible to build a city underground, but the process is very difficult.
Let’s take a look at some technical difficulties. You might say, “We did this hundreds of years ago, even from a much more primitive point of view, now we can’t?”
But such a huge project means too many challenges to deal with and too many questions to solve. Just think about utilities like water and sewer. A process that proceeds in the opposite direction will have to be built.
In addition, it is necessary to count the seemingly unbelievable difficulties such as digging for kilometers, carving the rocks, using materials to construct buildings and working machines underground…
Of course, there is also the issue of water. As the planet’s groundwater resources are rapidly depleted, providing clean water to an underground city sounds like a difficult problem to solve. When you think about all this, it seems like it is not possible to build a city like Zion of the Matrix and continue our lives there. Fortunately, we are not in a frightening dystopia taken over by machines. at least for now… Just kidding!
There are places in the world where people live underground for different reasons.
Although, as we said at the beginning of the article, humanity will not completely leave the ground and settle underground, the concept of living underground is a reality that has applications in today’s world.
It is known that especially in big cities, which are getting crowded day by day, it is headed underground because there is no more space above ground. One of the biggest examples in this regard is Beijing.
With the high population and the rising cost of living in a ‘normal’ home, people in Beijing have made their home in bunkers built years ago for the risk of nuclear war. Living in glassless, bare concrete ‘houses’ in these regions has been controversial in the past years, but many people are said to be staying in shelters for economic reasons.
Another example is Coober Pedy in Australia. Here the situation is a little different. People live in ‘semi-underground’ houses built a few meters below the ground. The reason is temperature. The region is so hot that people have found the solution by living underground. However, since the area is already a mining area, making the transition to living underground was not very costly in this region. Of course, it is not possible to call this town an ‘underground town’.
In addition to such forced underground migrations, architects, engineers and city planners think that if people continue to insist on living in big cities, more underground use will be required in many big cities of the world. The reason is simple; There will be no space above ground.
For example, in Singapore, the crowdedness of the city and the scarcity of space are so high that projects directed underground as a solution to this problem have already started. The first research on this subject was published in 2001 and the work of this mini underground city called Underground Science City has been going on for many years.
Even the time that such projects take and the huge budget they require shows how difficult it is for ‘all of humanity to leave the surface and start living underground’.
In the coming years, we can live in upside down skyscrapers built meters under the ground, maybe go underground with an elevator and do our shopping in an underground mall. But it doesn’t seem possible that we can spend our whole lives underground…
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