Article Written By EIH Subject Matter Expert
Dr. Sonika Sandhu
Use of tunnels is a common practice and is being undertaken since prehistoric times, initially it was probably done to enlarge the cave systems. Around 40,000 years ago the Neanderthals were manually excavating the ground in Bomvu hill, Swaziland. This today is regarded as the oldest mine ever made. Slowly manual excavation was improved upon by use of fire, which consisted in creating a fire close to the rock and extinguishing it quickly to make the rock mass crack due to the strong thermal gradient.
In Babylonia tunnels systems were used to aid in irrigation, a brick-lined pedestrian passage some 3,000 feet (900 meters) long were built about 2180 to 2160 BC under the Euphrates River to connect the royal palace with the temple. In Egypt people developed techniques for cutting through sifter rocks surfaces with copper saws and hollow reed drills both surrounded by an abrasive, a technique probably used first for quarrying stone blocks and later in excavating temple rooms inside rock cliffs.
Later on, different civilizations continued to excavated tunnels and underground spaces. Sometimes these excavations where to play a religious role like in the case of Egyptians, but also they were built as hydraulic works to channel water from sources to the cities, like in the case of the quanats built between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The Greeks and romans had made extensive tunnel networks, they were made basically to reclaim marshes by drainage, tunnels for mines, water supply, sewage, draining, roads, military tunnels and catacombs were built intensively, for water aqueducts such as the 6th-century-BC Greek water tunnel on the isle of Samos driven some 3,400 feet through limestone with a cross section about 6 feet square. The engineer Eupalinos de Megara, built this tunnel in the 530 BCE to supply with water the capital of the island and was, with its 1 km length, considered as one of the three marvels of the Hellenic world. The largest of these was a 4,800-foot-long, 25-foot-wide, 30-foot-high road tunnel (the Pausilippo) between Naples and Pozzuoli, executed in 36 BCE. In AD 41 the Romans used some 30,000 men for 10 years to push a 3.5-mile (6-kilometre) tunnel to drain Lacus Fucinus. They worked from shafts 120 feet apart and up to 400 feet deep. Far more attention was paid to ventilation and safety measures when workers were freemen, as shown by archaeological diggings at Hallstatt, Austria, where salt-mine tunnels have been worked since 2500 BC.
Even Leonardo Da Vinci dwelled his expertise in tunneling and conceived the idea of underground spaces in his urbanism projects and thinks about the possibility of tunneling through mountains to convey water across.
Like the world India also has an interesting tunneling history and various tunnels have been unearthed around the subcontinent. Some of them are
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National Library of Kolkata:
A secret enclosure was discovered by Archaeologists in the year 2010 here. The library is also 250 years old, and does not have any defined entrance. Only one arch was identified from this walled up place. The library was built by Nawab of Bengal in 1760 and was converted to the Imperial Library in 1891. There were then many speculations about the secret room there, however later it was found that it was a block stuffed with mud to strengthen the building used by the architects.
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Talatal Ghar:
It was part of the Rangpur palace and functioned as an secret army base. It actually consists of two tunnels and almost 3 stories underground. One of the tunnels is 3km long and connects to Dikhow river and the other one is a 16 km long escape route that leads to Garhgaon palace. These tunnels were used by the Ahom Kings during all their wars as an escape route.
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Padmanabhaswamy Temple:
One of the jewels of Southern temple architecture. It is riddled with secret tunnels, doors and rooms besides known for its impeccable architecture. The temple is located in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. It is in fact the most visited temple of Hinduism in India.
In 2011, there was a case filed against the Travancore Royal Family. They were blamed to have mismanaged the assets in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple that led to an investigation.
There were six vaults discovered after that investigation that gave it public attention worldwide immediately. What was discovered was beyond belief and gave everyone a shock. 22 billion dollars’ worth gold idols, necklaces and other treasure coins were discovered.
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Charminar:
The two greatest monuments of Hyderabad, the Charminar and the Golconda fort are said to be interconnected through a tunnel that is hidden. This passage was however never found in its proper place but there are more than a dozen structures that lead to support the existence of the 430 years old monument. In 2015, 2 new archways were found that suggested a tunnel as long as 9 kilometers which was destroyed due to negligence.
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Red Fort:
If people are to be believed, there is no place more mysterious than the Red fort in India. It is a seventeenth century fort built by Shah Jahan which is also the place where the PM delivers his Independence Day address from. It is said to be the home of many tunnels and secret passages, one that has recently been found to the Delhi State Legislative Assembly. The fort also has a chamber made of Lahori bricks which is suspected to be the house of weapons and ammunition keeping them safe from sunlight. It also has a secret tunnel connecting the Mughal structure to the Yamuna River.
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Pargwal Tunnel, Jammu:
This tunnel was discovered by the Indian army in 2014. It is a 20 feet deep tunnel with no ends found yet. It is a clear indication of trespassers of LOC trying to pass into India but not succeeding.
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Amer Fort to Jaigarh Fort – Most Renowned Underground Tunnel of Rajasthan
Due to a lack of infrastructure, the authorities have closed several underground tunnels in Rajasthan. But there is one notable exception in the state. The tunnel connecting Amer Fort to Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur still remains operational and is now a renowned tourist hotspot. Overlooking the highway, the Amer Fort and Palace is a leisurely multi-layered splendour. Despite the distance, Jaigarh Fort appears imposing and dominant from atop a hill. It’s hard to believe that there is a large network of underground tunnels underneath that connect both the city forts
