From prehistoric survival to modern opal mining: why we still live underground
In short: Humans have sought refuge beneath the earth for millions of years. While some tribes still live in caves as a traditional way of life, others have adopted underground living as a high-tech solution to extreme heat and persecution. Explore the enduring human connection to the stone.
Millions of years ago, early African ancestors first sought shelter within subterranean caverns, initiating the human tradition of cave habitation. Over time, these spaces evolved from mere shelters into cultural hubs as people added rock art and held communal ceremonies. Today, some remote tribes in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East continue to live in these ancestral ways, maintaining traditions and survival methods that mirror how humans lived thousands of years ago.
In some regions, underground living is a response to harsh environments or historical necessity. In the Simpson Desert of Australia, the town of Coober Pedy became a hub for opal mining after a gold prospector discovered a deposit in 1915. To escape daytime temperatures that can reach the 120s, soldiers returning from World War I began living in dugouts excavated from the hillsides. This practice stuck, and today, a community of 2,000 people lives largely underground, including their churches.
Other cave communities serve different purposes. In southern Spain, the hills of Guadix contain approximately 2,000 cave homes. Originally used by the Moors to escape religious persecution, they now house over 3,000 people, making it one of Europe's largest cave settlements. In Moab, Utah, a group of Mormons lives in over 15 cave homes blasted into sandstone with dynamite 50 years ago, featuring modern plumbing and electricity. Meanwhile, in China's Shaanxi Province, an estimated 30 to 40 million people lived in yaodong homes carved into hillsides during the early 2000s.
Whether driven by ancient tradition, modern mining, or the need to escape extreme heat, these settlements highlight a persistent human ability to adapt to the earth's interior. While these communities vary wildly in technology and purpose, they all share a fundamental connection to the environment.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Cave People | Life Inside the Mountains Few Have Ever Seen | 4K
- Also: What we can learn from the world’s vanishing cave dwellers
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