The Hidden Town

If you ever travel through the Australian desert, you might come upon a place called Coober Pedy. At first, Coober Pedy will seem like just another small, quiet town. You will see a few buildings coated in red dust. You might see a few cars on the roads, a few people on the sidewalks.

But if you take a closer look, you will notice some unusual things. Air vents poke out of the dirt. Doorways are carved into hillsides. That’s because much of Coober Pedy is underground.

The story of this fascinating city begins more than 100 years ago, when gems called opals were found in the rocky ground. It wasn’t long before miners were flocking to the area. The opals are pretty. They can be quite valuable too. A thumb-sized opal discovered in Coober Pedy in 2003 is worth more than $1 million.

Over the years, thousands of people have come to Coober Pedy hoping to get rich. But the environment is far from hospitable. Temperatures can get to 127 degrees in the summer. It’s so hot that smartphones stop working and the soles of shoes can melt on the sizzling ground.

Early miners came up with a clever way to escape the scorching heat. They knew that temperatures underground were much cooler. So they decided to dig their homes into the ground.

Today, more than 1,000 people live in homes called dugouts beneath Coober Pedy. These cave-like dwellings may be unusual (you can carve bookshelves into your walls!), but they are not uncomfortable. Air vents bring fresh air from the surface. There’s running water, electricity, and internet access. The conditions are ideal for getting a good night’s sleep. The conditions are cool, quiet, and dark.

If you’d like to find out for yourself what it’s like to sleep underground, you can stay at the Desert Cave Hotel, located dozens of feet below the surface. While you’re in town, explore an underground art gallery, browse the shelves at an underground bookstore, and go to an underground restaurant. Tour Faye’s Underground Home, which was hand dug by three women starting in the 1960s and is famous for its indoor swimming pool.

And don’t forget to try “noodling”: digging through piles of dug-up earth in search of opals. Who knows? You might just strike it rich!

^{This article was originally published in the September 2021 issue.}