The Australian Town Where People Live Underground
At first look, Coober Pedy might seem like any other mining town in the South Australian outback. But if you dig a little deeper, you can find much more under the surface — literally.
Once covered by ocean 150 million years ago, the town of Coober Pedy — about 750 kilometers northwest of Adelaide — now holds the treasures that the water left behind.
Beneath the red earth surface, colorful opals can be found in the rocks — and there are so many that Coober Pedy has been named the opal capital of the world.
Opals are formed from minerals left behind by the ocean that become solid over many years. They can usually be found inside cracks in the rock, and once mined, are often made into jewelry.
But there's more than just opals underneath the surface of Coober Pedy. Because of the high outback temperatures, which are around 35 degrees Celsius and higher in the summer, more than half of the town's population of 2,000 lives underground.
Their homes — called "dugouts" — are carved out of the rock. Without any windows, they keep a temperature of 19-25 degrees Celsius year-round. And it isn't just homes that have been built in this way: the town also has underground churches and even art galleries.
With Coober Pedy being around a day's drive from Adelaide, underground hotels have also been built for visitors. During their stay, tourists can take part in "noodling" — looking for small pieces of opal — on the ground surface, with areas of the town open to the public for doing so.
As well as tourists, the town has also been an attraction for filmmakers. The desert landscape has been used in films such as 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and Vin Diesel's 2000 sci-fi movie Pitch Black.
