LITERATURE REVIEW

it was later occupied and expanded by a host of other groups including Byzantine-era Christians, who left behind a collection of underground frescoes and chapels. Despite its long history, the city was not rediscovered until the 1960s, when a local man stumbled upon some of its tunnels while renovating his home.

2.2.2. Naours:

Located in northern France, the underground city of Naours includes two miles of tunnels and more than three hundred manufactured rooms—all of them hidden some one hundred feet beneath a forested plateau. The site began its life around the third century A.D. as part of a Roman quarry, but it was later expanded into a subterranean village after locals began using it as a hiding place during the wars and invasions of the Middle Ages. At its peak, it had enough room for 3,000 inhabitants and included its chapels, stables, wells, and bakeries. The naours caves were later sealed off for decades before being reopened in the 19th century as a tourist attraction. They became a popular sightseeing spot during World War I, and modern visitors can still see more than 2,000 pieces of graffiti left behind by Allied soldiers, many of whom fought nearby at the Battle of the Somme.

2.2.3. Lalibela:

In the 12th century A.D., a devout king ordered the construction of 11 eye-catching Christian churches in the Ethiopian village of Lalibela. This “New Jerusalem” is notable for having been fashioned from the top down: all of its churches were hewn from the volcanic rock below the earth’s surface then hollowed out, giving them the appearance of having grown directly out of the ground. The most iconic building is the crossshaped Church of Saint George, which was cut from a monolithic slice of stone inside a trench one hundred feet deep. It was then connected to the rest of the complex via a network of underground passageways, hidden caves, and catacombs. Legend has it that the construction of Lalibela took just 24 years, but many historians believe it was completed in phases over several centuries. The village is now considered a sacred site for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and its subterranean places of worship continue to draw as many as 100,000 pilgrims each year