Underground structures even whole cities have always been part of most of the world’s myths and religions. A few have been discovered but most of them have not. Side by side with the stories about underground structures, we have underground networks and tunnels connecting different places and sometimes extending for many kilometres and even between different countries.

In this article we will explore the myths and legends from all over the world that refer to underground cities and tunnels as well as what archaeologists and researchers have found and how these findings may be connected to such stories.

Underground Networks and Cities in Myths and Legends

According to mythological traditions, underground sites were mostly referred to as entrances to the underworld and we find such references all around the world. Although most of us think of the ‘underworld’ as a representation of ‘hell’ and therefore an imaginary or spiritual place for ‘bad’ people, in reality in ancient religions that wasn’t the case. The underworld was a place where the dead would go, but it was a place with physical entrances, guards, buildings and cities, and a place that a few mortals could visit and even communicate with the dead souls, gods, kings or the armies of the underworld. In a few cases though, according to the legends, they could even resurrect a dead person.

One of the most famous underground cities is the city of Agartha, a legendary city that is supposed to be in the centre of the Earth, the Earth’s Core. Central Asia is the origin of those legends and the race inhabiting this underground realm was called the Agharti. Theosophists refer to Agartha as a vast complex of caves and an underground network that was inhabited by the Asuras (evil demons) and enemies of the Gods. This underground network was supposedly made by man.

In Hindu mythology there are legends of a race called the Nagas, serpent like intelligent creatures with human faces that live in underground caverns. Those creatures are described as ‘children of Gods’ – immortal and able to fly - who got married with human kings and queens and supposedly spiritually advanced. Similarly, in Chinese legends dragons are not the ugly flying beasts that we believe today, but wise creature that would be mentors of kings and creators of kingdoms. Many Tibetans are mentioned to have entered those caves of the Nagas that expand miles and miles inside the mountains of Asia.

What is interesting is that a strange light emanates in those underground realms which has also been mentioned as the hollow earth inner sun . So the underground cities are not in dark as we would believe. Some of those realms now are inside Earth while in the past they used to be on the surface but were forced to move inside Earth due to circumstances like attacks or maybe even climate change.

Shambhala (a Sanskrit word meaning ‘place of peace’) is another famous holy place that for some is supposed to be a spiritual ‘paradise’, but for others it is suggested to be a real underground city with references of people that have actually visited it. Legends mention that the King of Shambhala travelled to Indi to meet Buddha and listen to his teachings. One major difference with Shambhala is that it is supposed to be a holy place in comparison to Agartha, which is a place of demons. According to Helena Blavatsky, Shambhala is located in the Gobi Desert.

On the other side of Earth, in America we have the legend of Akakor, a legend that the latest adventure of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls was based on. Tatunca Nara, an Amazon jungle guide, claims to have seen the city and described not only the city but also the chronicles of the underground kingdom. According to that legend ‘Gods’ came from a solar system known as ‘Schwerta’ and built an underground tunnel system in South America. This civilization left 13 underground cities in South America in the jungles of Amazon, yet to be found.

In the Mayan mythology we have the mythical underground city of Xibalba, ‘the land that the sun goes down into’ which was inhabited by superheroes and Gods, a civilization that supposedly vanished around the Middle Ages. The entrance to this world was thought to be located in Guatemala and description of the structures and locations within Xibalba are described in Popol Vuh .

In Greece, we have the myths of Hades and the Underworld, a realm where gods and heroes lived. God Pluto was the God of the Underworld which had many different sections including the Elysium and Tartarus.

In Irish legends we hear about the people named Tuatha De Danaan (People of the Goddess Danu), a race who moved underground when another race arrived on the island. According to the legends they came to Ireland in ‘dark clouds’ and landed on the mountains of Ireland. Those people in today’s myths are referred to as fairies.

In one of the Irish poems it is said about these people:

It is God who suffered them, though He restrained them

they landed with horror, with lofty deed,

in their cloud of mighty combat of spectres,

upon a mountain of Conmaicne of Connacht.

Without distinction to descerning Ireland,

Without ships, a ruthless course

the truth was not known beneath the sky of stars,

whether they were of heaven or of earth.

In Norwegian legends we have the Dwarves, beings of the underground associated with craftsmanship. Different races of Dwarves that were the ones that supplied the Gods with weapons.

In Egypt, we have references of the historians Herodotus and Strabo of a colossal underground temple that contained 3,000 rooms full of paintings and hieroglyphs, a lost labyrinth yet to be found.

There are many accounts of people that have accessed this underground realm which includes not only mythological accounts but accounts from recent history. It is also written in documents that Hitler and the Nazis discovered an entrance to the interior of Earth in Antarctica. The Nazi’s believed that a civilization lives inside Earth, the ‘super humans’. Some believe that the Nazi’s were in contact with them and in fact they were directing them and even sharing technology with them. While there is no proof of that kind of contact, we definitely know that the Nazi’s had the most advanced technology than any other country of the world during World War II.

The concept of the Hollow Earth is a popular concept and has also been the topic of many books like ‘At the Earth’s Core’ by Edgar Rice Borroughs, ‘A Journey to the Center of the Earth’ by Jules Verne or ‘Message found in a Bottle’ by Edgar Allen Poe.

Stories of vast underground realms, cities and networks inhabited by god-like beings more advanced and more intelligent than the current humanity are intriguing..

You can read Part 2 here : Discoveries of vast underground networks spanning countries and maybe even continents.

By April Holloway

References

The Phantom Kingdom – The Nazi Tibet Connection

Shambahla

The legend of Akakor

Underground tunnels in Malta

The Nagas

The Twin Heroes and the Lords of Xibalba

Irish Magic, and Tuatha De Danaans

The Underground Labyrinth of Egypt, Lost History of the Pyramids