Introduction

A panoramic investigation of the subterranean landscape, from sacred caves and derelict subway stations to nuclear bunkers and ancient underground cities—an exploration of the history, science, architecture, and mythology of the worlds beneath our feet

When Will Hunt was sixteen years old, he discovered an abandoned tunnel that ran beneath his house in Providence, Rhode Island. His first tunnel trips inspired a lifelong fascination with exploring underground worlds, from the derelict subway stations and sewers of New York City to the sacred caves, catacombs, and tombs, from bunkers to ancient underground cities in more than twenty countries around the world. Underground is both a personal exploration of Hunt’s obsession and a panoramic study of how we are all connected to the underground, how caves and other dark hollows have frightened and enchanted, repelled and captivated, us through the ages.

In a narrative spanning continents and epochs, Hunt follows a cast of subterranea-philes who have dedicated themselves to investigating underground worlds. He tracks the origins of life with a team of NASA microbiologists a mile beneath the Black Hills, camps out for three days with urban explorers in the catacombs and sewers of Paris, descends with an Aboriginal family into a 35,000-year-old sacred mine in the Australian outback, follows a ghostlike graffiti artist writing stories in the subway tunnels of New York, and glimpses a sacred sculpture molded by Paleolithic artists in the depths of a cave in the Pyrenees.

Each adventure is woven with findings in mythology and anthropology, natural history and neuroscience, literature and philosophy. In elegant and graceful prose, Hunt cures us of our “surface chauvinism,” opening our eyes to the planet’s hidden dimension. He reveals how the subterranean landscape gave shape to our most basic beliefs, including how we think about ourselves as humans. At bottom, Underground is a meditation on the allure of darkness, the power of mystery, and our eternal desire to connect with what we cannot see.

Advance praise for Underground

“An unusual and intriguing travel book . . . As [Will] Hunt reveals the scientific, historic, literary, psychological, spiritual, and metaphorical qualities of his exploration, it begins to seem less idiosyncratic than universal, a pull that has persisted throughout civilization and a mystery that has yet to be solved. The underground may represent hell to some, but it has also provided spiritual solace for centuries. . . . A vivid illumination of the dark and an effective evocation of its profound mystery.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Editorial Review

An Amazon Best Book of February 2019:A fascinating look at the life and history—human and otherwise—of the world beneath our feet, Underground explores the strange relationship people have always had with the dark, hidden corners of the earth, simultaneously afraid of potential dangers and entranced by the possibility of unseen wonders. While Underground’s subterranean adventures through tunnels, catacombs, and other claustrophobia-inducing locales are worth the price of admission alone, it’s the voyages into topics that on the surface may appear wide-ranging—such as the biology of caves in South Dakota, the songlines of the Indigenous Australians, and the similarities between ancient dwellings in Turkey and ant nests—that upon closer inspection reveal a surprising degree of interconnectedness and ultimately take the book into uncharted territory. A captivating read, Underground is both informing and an invitation to further curiosity about the world around and under us all. —Matt Fyffe

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