What lies beneath: 10 of the world’s most incredible underground structures

Put ordinary buildings underground and they seem to transform into something far more interesting and otherworldly.

RESO, Montreal, Canada

What do you do if you have to live with long, bitterly cold winters? Burrow underground. The result is Montreal’s Underground City – perhaps more accurately described as an underground shopping mall – with 33 kilometres of tunnels connected to the subway system and 120 above-ground buildings. You’ll find everything from department stores to art boutiques, plus food markets, food courts and restaurants, cinemas and an ice rink. Half a million people pass through daily. See mtl.org

Zedwell Underground, London, UK

This underground hotel is a sound-proof retreat right by the Tottenham Court Road tube station in London.

You expect underground hotels to be basic and likely located in desert climates, not smack-bang in central London, just one block from the British Museum. If urban noise disturbs your sleep, this is the place to be: the soundproofing is so good you won’t even hear the rumble of underground trains from Tottenham Court Road station through the walls. The rooms – or “cocoons” – have ambient lighting, air purifiers and spritzes of lavender to waft you into wellness. See zedwellhotels.com

Zipaquira Salt Cathedral, Zipaquira, Colombia

The arched entrance to the Zipaquira Salt Cathedral, outside of Bogota.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Miners have a habit of digging themselves churches and hoping for the protection of saints. This one near Bogota, constructed in 1995, wins for size and the coloured lights that give it a blue, purple or red glow. Natural phosphorescence sparkles on the walls. The cathedral has three altars, several striking rock sculptures, and a tunnel-like appearance. The temperature is a chilly 14 degrees, since the mine is at high altitude. See colombia.travel

Postojna Post Office, Postojna, Slovenia

This modest stone kiosk was the world’s first underground post office (1899) and is located on the edge of a large cavern known as the Dance Hall, just one part of a staggering cave system. But the caves have another claim to underground fame: public loos in a glass pavilion (built in 2011) that winds sinuously along the cave wall, its lighting providing a striking contrast to the huge bulk of brown rock above. See postojnska-jama.eu

Antinori nel Chianti Winery, Tuscany, Italy

The tiered structure is almost invisible, but for a couple of slits in the hillside.

Underground cellar doors are a trend, but all hail this one, which isn’t only enormous – it houses a museum, shop and restaurant, as well as a winery – but spectacular. The tiered hillside structure, covered in Chianti vineyards, is almost invisible but for a few circles that let in light – and a slit in the hillside. The spiral that connects to the wine vaults brings sexy back to staircases. See antinori.it

Derinkuyu Underground City, Cappadocia, Turkey

These chambers carved into rock once housed communal kitchens, dormitories, storage areas, stables and wine presses.Credit: Alamy

The dozens of underground cities below Cappadocia’s spectacular landscape were used in the eighth century BCE as wartime retreat. Derinkuyu, which descends 20 levels, is the most amazing. Clamber down a few levels to find yourself in huge, rock-carved chambers that once housed communal kitchens, dormitories, storage areas, stables and wine presses. Bring a torch for a spooky adventure away from the illuminated – and often crowded – tourist trail. See goturkiye.com

White Cliffs Underground Motel, White Cliffs, Australia

This underground hotel in NSW claims to be the world’s largest.

There are several underground accommodations in Australian outback mining towns with fierce above-ground heat, but this one in NSW claims to be the world’s largest, with 44 rooms, a restaurant and a bar. It’s tempting to take out your pickaxe and see if you can dig out an opal. The temperature is a constant 22 degrees, and, without light or noise interference, you’ll sleep like the dead. See undergroundmotel.com.au

Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia

The Batu Caves house a Hindu temple, statues and frescoes.Credit: Tourism Malaysia

This Tamil religious site north of Kuala Lumpur might be underground, but you have to ascend 272 outdoor steps first – dodging pesky monkeys – to reach the entrance. The vast main cave houses a Hindu temple, while several other caves are decorated with statues and frescoes. The site is especially lively during Thaipusam festival in January or February, when devotees practise self-mortification by driving metal skewers through their skin. Ouch. See malaysia.travel

Staedel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany

Visitors can walk across this German museum’s lawn roof and skylights.

Quite a few museums have expanded underground, but none as wonderfully as this top German art museum. The minimalist space lies beneath the museum gardens, and its ceiling is punctured by 195 circular skylights that provide a moving grid of light in the space below. Outside, you can walk over the lawn roof and across the skylights. The underground extension is eco-friendly too, with heating and cooling supplied by geothermal piles. See staedelmuseum.de

Pre-Giroud Military Fort, Vallorbe, Switzerland

Visitors look at a diorama of the post’s WWII-era medical facility.Credit: Claude Jaccard

You visit this underground observation post, built in the early 1940s to guard the Swiss-French border during World War II, by entering through an innocuous-looking chalet – actually a concrete bunker with a painted faux exterior.

Below lie barracks for 200 soldiers, officers’ quarters, a kitchen, an infirmary, a telephone exchange and munitions stores. Battery slits are concealed by fake trees made of iron, and rocket-launching positions hide beneath fake rocks that can be raised from below with pulleys. See yverdonlesbainsregion.ch