In the middle of the Australian Outback, there’s a town where chimneys rise from the sand and big red signs warn people of “unmarked holes.”
What began in 1917 as perhaps the largest opal mining operation in the world has since expanded into a subterranean community that is safely out of reach from the region’s 120-degree summers.
Entire bedrooms, bookstores, churches, and bars are installed in the carved underground walls of Coober Pedy, the town that lives underground. After 100 years of living in these “dugouts,” the folks who call it home have no plans of stopping.