Subterranean Realms: Subterranean & Rock Cut Structures in Ancient & Medieval Times

By Karen Mutton

Subterranean Realms is a unique book that surveys underground and rock cut structures created in the past. It is the third book in Mutton’s trilogy on mysterious realms, the others being Sunken Realms and Water Realms. We know who built some of these astonishing and mysterious structures, but others were built by unknown civilizations in prehistory for reasons that are debated among researchers. Some subterranean structures may have been built for initiation ceremonies or perhaps for acoustic reasons, or both. Mutton discusses such interesting sites as: Derinkuyu, an underground city in Cappadocia, Turkey that housed 20,000 people; Roman catacombs of Domitilla; Palermo Capuchin catacombs; Alexandria catacombs; Paris catacombs; Maltese hypogeum; Rock-cut structures of Petra; Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae; Elephanta Caves, India; Lalibela, Ethiopia; Tarquinia Etruscan necropolis; Hallstatt salt mine; Beijing air raid shelters; Japanese high command Okinawa tunnels; more. There are tons of illustrations in this fascinating book!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press
• Release date: Jan 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781948803564

Karen Mutton

Karen Mutton is a retired ancient history teacher, author, lecturer, world traveller and mother of three. She has written five books on ancient history and finance. Subterranean Realms is part of her “Realms” series, after Sunken Realms and Water Realms. Residing in Australia with her husband, daughter and cat, she enjoys researching, writing, socializing with family and friends as well as travelling to foreign countries to appreciate their culture and history. She lives in Sydney.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

The aims and objectives of this book are threefold.

1. To document subterranean structures on five continents (with the exception of the vast amounts of burials around the world unless they involve sophisticated building techniques.)

2. To document sophisticated rock-cut structures with interior chambers.

3. To explore myths, legends and stories of underground caves, tunnels and cities in their historical context.

This book will not cover:

• Hollow Earth theories and alleged inhabitants.

• Excavated sites unless they possess subterranean elements which were constructed in ancient times.

• Theories of ancient builders from Atlantis, Lemuria or the Pleiades.

Since the very dawn of humanity, caves have been used for shelter, religious ceremonies and artistic expression. Caves have provided protection from terrestrial catastrophes, inclement weather and predators. It is no surprise that caves have featured as the birthplace for several gods and heroes in the mythologies of the ancient world, as the cave structure has been likened to a primordial womb.

The senior Greek god Zeus was born in Dikteon Andron cave in Crete, the son of Titans Cronus and Rhea. Cronus was a cannibal who immediately intended to swallow his newborn son, as he had siblings Hestia, Hades, Hera, Poseidon and Demeter, but Rhea concealed him in the Dikteon cave. Zeus eventually made his father regurgitate his siblings and confined him to Tartarus, deep within the Earth.

The Persian god Mithra, who was adopted into the Graeco-Roman world, was born from a rock, where he emerged with a dagger in one hand and torch in the other. He is often depicted slaying a sacred bull in a cavern, an act known as the tauroctony. His temples, known as mithraea, were built underground or in caves throughout the Roman Empire.

If the cave could be seen as a primordial womb, it could also be seen as the entrance to the Underworld in many cultures. The Greeks believed that the entrance to Hades was through a cave; similar to Mexico where the underworld, known as Xibalba, was often entered by a cave or cavern. These caves had rivers which conveyed the soul to the underworld, often for judgement.

The archetypal story of the descent of a hero into the underworld was analysed by the great 20th century psychologist Carl Jung, who wrote in his ‘Psychology and Alchemy,’ The purpose of the descent as universally exemplified in the myth of the hero is to show that only in the region of danger (watery abyss, cavern, forest, island etc) can one find the ‘treasure hard to attain’ (jewel, virgin, life-potion, victory over death.

Primarily in East Asian religions and myths, the Underworld was seen as a place of enchanting cities and civilisations, known as Agartha, Shamballah or Patala. Sometimes these places were associated with wise serpents, known as nagas.

Many subterranean structures were built before recorded history, so we do not know their purpose. These structures include the hypogea of Europe, nuraghe of Sardinia and some of the vast underground cities of Cappadocia in Turkey. They stand as silent testimonials to the ingenuity of the ancients.

Egyptian Old Kingdom structures, which were allegedly constructed around 4,500 years ago, left no written records. Even before the pyramids were built, the Egyptians constructed elaborate shaft tombs beneath mastabas with the crudest of tools. Most of the impressive buildings on the Giza Plateau have equally impressive substructures constructed before recorded history that are barely known to non-historians. In later times, they dug elaborate tombs and temples into rocks and cliff faces.

Humans have been burying their dead in underground tombs since time immemorial in most cultures. However, it was not until Roman times that catacombs, cities of the dead, were developed in vast subterranean complexes, around the Mediterranean. In Late Period Egypt, sacred animals were also buried in vast catacombs.

The ancients in Greece, Rome, the Levant, Persia and Mesoamerica were efficient engineers at tunnelling through solid rock or even mountains. Usually these tunnels had a utilitarian purpose of providing water in parched areas like Persia and the Tarim Basin. Many smaller tunnels found throughout central Europe, known as erdstalls, seem to have no discernible purpose.

The Christian world has its share of rock-cut churches and monasteries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Some of the subterranean cities in Turkey, which was Christian until the Ottoman conquest of the 15th century, were built by Christians escaping from Mongol and Muslim conquests.

In India, and along the Silk Road route, the spread of Buddhism with its strong monastic culture, saw the development of elaborate rock-cut caves. Hindus also built extraordinary structures such as the Kailasa Temple at Ellora, by cutting vertically into the rock.

One extraordinary fact unites all the subterranean and rock-cut structures throughout the world. Without power or mechanical tools, the ancients cut, removed, polished and carved deep structures supposedly with only basic stone, bone and copper, bronze or iron tools. Even granite, one of the hardest stones on the planet, was fashioned by the ancient Egyptians who supposedly only had copper tools.

Many of these magnificent structures have components which resemble those created in modern times by precision drilling with diamond tipped drills and other power devices. Engineer Christopher Dunn and others have made a good case for high technology in the ancient world. High technology stone carving candidates include the granite coffers of the Egyptian Serapeum, highly polished stone of the Mauryan Empire in India and the polygonal stones of Incan walls. However, it is also possible that the ancients had lost knowledge pertaining to softening rocks and stones with naturally obtained chemicals. For now, until such technology is properly identified, we have to be content with the mainstream view of ancient stone cutting technology.

Until then, we can admire the silent structures left to us by our ancestors.

PART 1

EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

UNDERGROUND TEMPLES, TOMBS & CHAMBERS

TEMPLES- NECROMANTEION

MITHRAEA

NYMPHAEUM

ROCK-CUT CHURCHES & MONASTERIES

BURIALS- HYPOGEA

CATACOMBS

ROCK-CUT TOMBS

From islands of Malta and Sardinia to the cave cities of Turkey and Armenia, subterranean structures have been dug with primitive tools since time immemorial. These include pagan temples like the mithraea, elaborate catacombs, rock-cut monasteries and mysterious hypogea.

UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES of the MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

Europe, particularly the Mediterranean world, which includes the Levant and Turkey, has seen the rise and fall of many civilisations from prehistoric to medieval times. It may be surprising to some to learn that numerous subterranean structures such as hypogea, fogou, souterrains and erdstall tunnels were built in Neolithic, Copper Age (Chalcolithic) or Bronze Age times before recorded history. These also include the enigmatic nuraghe of Sardinia and silent necropolises of the Etruscans in Italy.

The ancient Romans were the first to build large underground cities to the dead known to us as catacombs, a practice they adapted from the Etruscans. These necropolises have been found around the Mediterranean from Egypt to Malta and Sicily.

Pagan temples, including the mithraea built in Roman times for the god Mithras, and Christian churches (usually Orthodox) were built underground and in rock-cut caves from Greek to medieval times. These include many rock-cut monasteries in Romania, Armenia and the Balkans.

We don‘t know who built sophisticated subterranean structures like the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta in prehistoric times or how such a task was undertaken with only tools of antlers, flint, chert and obsidian. We don‘t know how they managed to use acoustic resonance to amplify sounds through the so-called Oracle Chamber. We don‘t know why Neolithic people went to great trouble to quarry and erect megalithic stones such as at Stonehenge.

We do know that the prehistoric ancients possessed superior tunnelling, building and engineering expertise which is difficult to explain. Fortunately, the engineering marvels of the Romans are more clearly understood because they left us records of their accomplishments, such as ‘De Architectura’ by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio.

UNDERGROUND TEMPLES IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

Necromanteion, Epirus Greece

The Necromanteion was a Greek temple dedicated to the god of the Underworld Hades, and his consort Persephone. The Necromanteion in Epirus was believed to be located at the meeting point of three rivers in the realm of Hades, making it the ideal place to build a temple to practice necromancy, communication with the dead, as spirits were said to possess abilities to foretell the future.

Greeks attempting to commune with the spirit world first entered a dark chamber before performing elaborate rituals intended for their own protection. Then the priest would lead them to a deeper chamber, where a ritual animal sacrifice would be performed, before passing through three gates which gave them symbolic entry into the Underworld. Within this chamber, they were able to speak to the spirits of the Underworld.

Pilgrims expected to see images of the dead as shadows flickering against the lantern light. These visions may have been enhanced by a strict diet and the use of hallucinogens. Mechanical contrivances found in the chambers may have been used to float images of the spirit world. Following their visit with the deceased, the pilgrims were forbidden to talk about their experience, or risk Hades claiming their own lives in exchange.

The Necromanteion was destroyed by an invading army in 167 BCE, and lay in ruins until a monastery dedicated to John the Baptist was built on the site in the 18th century.

In recent years, some scholars have cast doubt upon the ruins being identified as the Necromanteion, and believe that the underground chambers were storage areas for water or grain.

Image of Necromanteion of Acheron attributed to Nikos Laskaridis CC BY-SA 4.0

MITHRAEA

Mithra was originally a Persian god who became popular in the Roman Empire from the 1st to 4th CE. Mithraism was a mystery religion with a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates met in underground temples known to us as mithraea (singular mithraeum), many of which survive throughout the Roman world.

Iconic sculptures show Mithras being born from a rock and slaughtering a bull in his Phyrgian style cap. However, no theology or written texts from the religion survive, so interpretation of the physical evidence is contested.

Rome appears to be the centre of the cult, and it is possible that at least 680 mithraea were built in that city alone. Mithraic temples were built below ground without windows and cheaply constructed. They represented the cave to which Mithras carried and butchered the bull and were often built close to streams or springs.

Mithraism, which was very popular with the Roman military, was a very male oriented cult, with few or no females allowed. Temples have been discovered in Italy, France, Germany, England, Belgium, Bosnia, Hungary, Israel, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Syria.

The London Mithraeum was discovered beneath Walbrook Street when a building was being constructed in 1954. This temple, which was built in the mid-3rd century CE, also included worship of Roman gods such as Minerva and Mercury. It was dismantled and removed to Temple Court, Queen Victoria Street in 1962, where the foundations were reassembled at street level for an open-air public display.

In 2007, plans were submitted to return the Mithraeum to its original location, following the demolition of buildings in Walbrook Street. In 2010, the Bloomberg Company purchased the Walbrook Square project and decided to restore the Mithraeum to its original site as part of their new European headquarters. Currently seven metres below street level, the reconstructed Mithraeum reflects the first building phase of around 240 CE without any later Roman additions. The rebuilt Mithraeum is free to visit at 12 Walbrook, in the City of London.

Over a dozen mithraea have been excavated in Rome, with the temple beneath the Basilica of San Clemente, built in 1108, being open to the public. Constructed around 200 CE by a nobleman who converted a room of his house to the cult, this temple had characteristic stone benches along either side of the room with an altar to Mithras in front of a central niche. The walls and ceiling have a rough quality which is reminiscent of the Mithraean cave.

Other Roman mithraea include the Mithraeum of the Circus Maximus, the Mithraeum at the Baths of Caracalla and the mithraeum under the Barberini Palace which has a fresco of Mithras stabbing the bull, a ritual known as tauroctony (bull killing).

Often Christian churches were built over mithraea in order to assert the superiority of the new religion. These include the Castra Peregrinorum mithraeum and the Church of Santa Prisca mithraeum which was discovered in 1934 and excavated by Dutch archeologists.

In 2017, an underground Mithraeum built around 300 CE was discovered at the Zerzevan Castle in Diyarbakir, Turkey. These castle ruins also yielded an underground church, shelter, secret passages, water channels, houses and storage facilities which were found in earlier excavations.

The mithraeum is 35 square metres wide and reaches a height of 2.5 metres. Along with three niches on the eastern part of the temple, there is also a pool was used for purification ceremonies.

Archeologists are excited that the temple is the only mithraeum discovered on the eastern border of the Roman Empire.

Rebuilt London mithraeum, image credit Gapfall CC BY-SA 4.0

REFERENCE: Wikipedia entry on London Mithraeum and mithraea

LUPERCAL, ROME

The Lupercal cave was a sacred cave beneath the Palatine Hill.

A foundation legend of Rome states that the Lupercal cave is where twins Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf after they had been abandoned at birth. The Roman festival known as Lupercalia which was held every February 15, commemorated the event by the priests of the god Lupercus holding a ceremony in which goats and dogs were sacrificed. A fertility rite was also held, with the goatskins covering the half-naked priests who then cavorted through the streets of Rome touching any person they met with straps from the slaughtered goats. This ceremony was said to confer fertility upon barren women.

The location of this cave remained a mystery which was solved in 2007 when Italian archeologists announced that they had found the Lupercal cave 16 metres beneath the house of Augustus, the Domus Livia, on the Palatine hill. During restoration of the house, an 8-metre-high cave decorated with shells, mosaics and marble was discovered.

However, experts like Professor Fausto Zevi, professor of Roman Archeology at Rome‘s La Sapienza University, and Professor Henner von Hesberg, head of the German Archeological Institute, Rome, conclude that the grotto is actually a nymphaeum from Nero‘s time.

Yet to be thoroughly investigated, the artwork revealed by a probe promises that the grotto will be a remarkable structure.

Probe reveals image of the grotto beneath the Domus Livia which is still filled with debris. Image and reference Wikipedia, fair use.

NYMPHAEUM (NYMPHAEA)

In ancient Greece and Rome, a nymphaeum was a sanctuary dedicated to the nymphs which was either rectangular or circular, with niches and a fountain. Often, they were built underground in grottoes or places with a natural spring. The remains of at least 20 nymphaea have been found in Rome, Asia Minor and North Africa.

The Nymphaeum of Annibaldis was built in the time of Augustus next to the Colosseum. Originally built underground to worship the nymphs and natural world, this nymphaeum is decorated by niches, mother of pearl and shells.

Nymphaeum of Orte. Image Ninfeo credit Rinasci

The secret garden of Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus, was built beneath their palatial residence in Rome between 40-20 BCE. This nymphaeum, discovered in 1863, was dominated by a magnificent fresco depicting plants, flowers, birds and fruits. Unfortunately, some of the frescoes were destroyed by bombings during World War II, and others were removed for protection.

The city of Orte, ancient Hortae, overlooks the Tiber valley. A spectacular nymphaeum and numerous grottoes were excavated into the volcanic tufa rock in Roman times. There are also irrigation tunnels and cisterns.

REFERENCE: Wikipedia

Pagan Basilica, Rome

An underground pagan basilica from the 1st century BCE dedicated to Pythagoras and Plato‘s metaphysics was opened to the public in late 2015. The Porta Maggiore basilica is 12 metres long (40 feet) 12 metres below street level and was discovered during construction of a railway line in 1917.

This basilica, built by the wealthy Statilius family to practice the cult of Neo-Pythagoreanism, has an apse and three naves lined by stone pillars. All are richly decorated with images of satyrs, centaurs and griffins, as well as depictions of the heroes Hercules, Orpheus, Achilles and Paris.

THE GREAT ANTRUM, BAIAE

In the 1950s, a Roman era antrum (cavern) was uncovered in Baiae, on the Bay of Naples, after Italian archeologist Amedo Maiuri and his workers cleared a 3-metre-thick pile of earth and vines beneath a vineyard. A sliver of tunnel disappeared into a hillside close to the ruins of a temple, and those who tried to enter were struck by volcanic fumes.

A decade later amateur archeologist Robert Paget, a Briton who worked at a nearby NATO base, started excavating the tunnel for the next decade. Paget was hoping to locate the Cave of the Sibyl which appeared in Roman mythology. He and a colleague Keith Jones pressed their way through the narrow opening and found themselves in a high but very narrow tunnel, only 21 inches wide. Following the tunnel downwards, it terminated in a solid wall of rubble after 400 feet.

It took Paget and Jones a decade to clear the rubble and explore a highly ambitious tunnel system which had niches for oil lamps every metre or so. As the men went deeper, they encountered more blockages until they came across a sulphurous, boiling stream which disappeared into the darkness.

Conditions in this part of the tunnel were difficult with high temperatures and sulphur fumes. Forcing their way across the stream, they encountered a steep ascending staircase which opened into an antechamber, oriented to the sunset, that Paget dubbed the hidden sanctuary. From there, more hidden staircases ascended to the surface to emerge behind the ruins of ancient water tanks.

Paget and Jones believed that the tunnel system was part of an ancient temple, where visitors and the sibyl may have visited the River Styx in order to commune with those of the underworld in Hades. The temple complex at Baiae seemed to have been constructed to allow such a journey which was written by Virgil in his Aeniad.

Today the cave complex remains locked and barely visited.

REFERENCE: Dash, Michael, The Unsolved Mystery of the Tunnels of Baiae, Smithsonian.com, October 1, 2012. https://tinyurl.com/sy42326

Derbent Subterranean Church, Russia

One of the oldest Christian churches in the world has been identified when a strange subterranean structure on the Caspian Sea was recently scanned by muon x-rays. Until 2019, the structure was believed to be either a church, a Zoroastrian temple or water cistern. It lies beneath the UNESCO Naryn-Kala fortress which cannot be excavated, so scientists spent four months scanning it.

The building is around 11 metres (36 ft deep), 15 metres (50 ft) from north to south and 13.4 metres (44 ft) from east to west in cruciform shape with a ruined dome in the centre.

Image credit: NUST MSIS

ROCK CUT CHURCHES & MONASTERIES

Since the beginning of Christianity, churches were built underground or in caves to escape persecution in the Roman Empire. Even when Christianity became the state religion, monastic orders in Eastern Europe, Turkey, Transcaucasia and the Middle East often chose to live in hewn out caves to isolate them from the material world.

This section will only look at a selection of churches carved into rocks, rather than churches with crypts in basements, or structures which are now underground due to the passage of time.

Manbij, Syria was occupied by ISIS forces for two years until 2016. In 2017, an early underground Christian church or refuge was discovered which had been carved out with narrow tunnels, complete with grooved shelves to hold candles. There were many escape routes in the tunnels, featuring large stones that served as hidden doors.

This secret church could date