Since 1915, Humans Have Been Living Inside This Hole. You Gotta See The Inside...

Time and time again, humans have proved there are many incredible ways to live. We’ve seen floating homes, tiny mobile shelters, and container vans transformed into cozy quarters. We may think we’ve seen it all, but that’s about to change.

In the scorching red plains and treeless horizon of South Australia, there lies a unique little town called Coober Pedy.

Flickr / Denisbin

Home to nearly 2,000 people, Coober Pedy was originally established as an opal mining town.

Flickr / KT

Because of the area’s high temperatures, the residents here have a rather unconventional way of living.

Flickr / Benjamin Jakabek

Coober Pedy exists almost entirely beneath the ground!

Flickr / Smart Encyclopedia

Within the red Australian earth, the town stretches miles and miles of man-made tunnels filled with furnishings you’d find in homes above ground.

Flickr / Benjamin Jakabek

There are even hotel rooms you can rent if you’d like to “drop” by and explore.

Flickr / Albert Llausas

Despite the home’s half-above, half-below the hot earth location, they are designed to offer the same comfort of normal modern-day houses.

Flickr / peterhemminger

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It all started in 1915 when a father and son came through the area in search of gold.

Flickr / Duremi

Instead, they found opal, which quickly became a popular stone abroad. But because of the location’s high temperatures, the miners found it easier to seek shelter within their mines.

Wikipedia

Today, nearly 1,500 homes exist in Coober Pedy.

Flickr / dannebrog

Flickr / Michael

The town has also become the main provider of opal in the world – making it’s livelihood as famous as its unique homes. In fact, the town’s name itself means “white man’s hole,” an Aboriginal term coined in the 1920s.