5 Where Do People Live Under the Ground?
One place where people live under the ground is a small town called Coober Pedy.Coober Pedy is in the Outback
of south Australia. Most of the people in Coober Pedy are miners. Miners dig under the ground. They look for gold or special stones. Coober Pedy is famous for opals.Opals are beautiful white stones. People put opals in jewelry.
Miners discovered opals in Coober Pedy in 1915. At that time,many miners lived in simple holes under the ground.Aboriginal people laughed at them.The Aboriginal people are the native people of Australia. They called the area kupa piti. This means “white man in a hole” in their language.
Today, the homes are not simple holes. About four thousand people live in Coober Pedy. About half the people live under the ground. Coober Pedy has homes, restaurants, hotels, and churches. It is like other towns. But the people don't have a view. A new underground house with five rooms costs about $25,000. Some homes have swimming pools!
The people of Coober Pedy live underground for different reasons. One reason is there are no trees. The last tree died in 1971. People need wood from trees to build houses.The main reason why people live underground is the very hot weather. The temperature in the summer goes up to 122℉[50℃]. Underground, the temperature is 77℉ [25℃].
People also live under the ground in the Sahara Desert in south Tunisia. It is very hot and there are no trees. The people there are called Berbers. The Berbers dig deep holes in the ground. Many houses have two or three floors, but they are simple. Air and light come through an open hole. There are about seven hundred of these holes.
Thousands of years ago, people hid underground in Cappadocia, Turkey. People still live there today. It is a beautiful place with good weather.In the future, more people will live under the ground. They will have different reasons. Japan has a lot of people and little land. Japan wants to build a city under the ground. The name of the city will be Alice City. About 100,000 people will live there. It will have offices,hotels,sports centers,and theaters.
Underground cities are very interesting, of course. But can people live with no sun and no sky?