"Many animals, from birds to insects, build structures using wood, soil, or a range other materials. Surprisingly to most people, a similarly diverse array of animal homes exist underground, in the hidden world beneath our feet. This is particularly true for ants who excavate large and complex nests in which they shelter, reproduce and generally go about their lives. Despite the existence of this vast underground world, it has remained largely unexplored....

The ancient hidden city of Derinkuyu, Turkey, was forgotten for centuries until a man discovered a hidden wall while doing renovations on his home in 1963. Ancient Underground Structures uses cutaway illustrations to detail the hidden history of ancient structures, used by such people as troglodytes who inhabited underground churches, markets, mines, and burial chambers.

Today's styles of earth shelters--not only homes, but commercial and utility buildings--are so new, builders, architects, and engineers are hungry for information. Author David Carter, design and construction consultant, delivers vital information about building these low-cost, energy-efficient structures. Leading both the owner-builder and the building professional through the maze of pre-planning--as necessary as the building itself--the author...

"Illustrated with breathtaking photographs, this book exposes the remarkable diversity of man-made underground environments, from their astonishing range of architectural approaches to the many cultural meanings they carry, whether as places of hope, fear, memory, labor or political resistance. Undergrounds are places that can tell a city's oldest stories or foresee its most distant futures; they are places ultimately of both incredible depth and...