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Sophia R.

Dixia Cheng: Beijing's Underground City Built to Survive a Soviet Nuclear War

Mao made 300,000 Beijingers dig a secret nuclear shelter under the city by hand — big enough for half the population. Then everyone forgot it.

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Dixia Cheng: Beijing's Underground City Built to Survive a Soviet Nuclear War

The Underground

Descend into the shadows of The Underground. A guide to organized crime, espionage, and the secret tunnels and subcultures hidden beneath the surface. The Underground investigates the concealed systems that shape the world beyond plain sight.

Area 52: The Secret Base Doing the Work Area 51 Is Too Famous For

Area 52: The Secret Base Doing the Work Area 51 Is Too Famous For

Area 51 got too famous to hide anything. So America's real secret testing moved 70 miles away, to a base most people have never heard of: Area 52.

Tito's Bunker (ARK D-0): Inside Yugoslavia's Largest Secret Nuclear Command Center

Tito spent 26 years and $4.6 billion secretly digging a nuclear bunker for 350 people under a Bosnian mountain. He never once set foot inside.

Deadwood, South Dakota: The Lawless Gold Town Where Wild Bill Died and the Wild West Became Legend

Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead here weeks after arriving, in a gold town that wasn't even legally allowed to exist. This is where the Wild West myth was born.

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Baikonur Cosmodrome: The Secret Spaceport That Hid Rocketry's Worst Disaster

Baikonur gave humanity the stars. It also buried rocketry's worst disaster for 29 years — and lied about its own name.

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Skull and Bones: Yale's Most Powerful Secret Society and the Tomb It Runs From

Skull and Bones taps just fifteen Yale seniors a year — and that tiny annual harvest has produced U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, and the founders of the CIA. It runs from a windowless New Haven crypt no outsider has ever been allowed inside.

Bohemian Grove: The Secret Redwood Camp of America’s Powerful Men

Every July, presidents and billionaires gather in a California redwood forest to burn an effigy before a giant owl. The atomic bomb was planned here.

Pitigliano, Italy: The Cliff Town, the Jewish Ghetto, and the Roads of the Dead

Pitigliano is the Tuscan cliff-town carved into tuff that sheltered Jews from the popes for 500 years. Its synagogue stands restored today — and nearly empty.

Derinkuyu: The 18-Story Underground City That Sheltered 20,000 People Beneath Cappadocia

Derinkuyu hid 20,000 people 18 levels deep in Cappadocia — a city built to vanish. A man found it behind his basement wall in 1963.

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House of the Temple: The Masonic Tomb That Guards a Dead Confederate in Washington

The headquarters of American Freemasonry is built as a tomb of the ancient world, with a Confederate general entombed inside the wall.

Freemasons' Hall: The Secret Society Headquarters Hiding in Plain Sight in London

The world's most conspiracy-theorized society runs itself from a public London street — and its headquarters is secretly a war memorial for 3,000 dead.

Harardhere: The Somali Town That Listed Piracy on a Stock Exchange

A Somali town built a stock exchange where you bought shares in upcoming hijackings. The founder was lured to Brussels by a fake film deal.

Eyl: The Puntland Fishing Town That Became the Face of Somali Piracy

A fishing village with no electricity ran a billion-dollar piracy economy from its beach — anchoring the largest ship ever hijacked at sea.

McMurdo Station: Antarctica's Largest Settlement and the Nuclear Reactor It Buried at the Bottom of the World

Antarctica's largest base ran on a leaking nuclear reactor for a decade — until cleaning it up forced the U.S. to ship a contaminated mountain home.

Teufelsberg: The American Spy Dome on Top of 75 Million Cubic Yards of Buried Berlin

Eighty meters of broken Berlin cover a Nazi building the Allies couldn't destroy. The Americans put a listening station on top.

Menwith Hill: The Largest American Spy Base on British Soil

The British government has refused to publicly discuss what happens at Menwith Hill for seventy years. Edward Snowden forced part of the answer into the open.

Edward C.

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Dixia Cheng: Beijing's Underground City Built to Survive a Soviet Nuclear War

The Underground

Area 52: The Secret Base Doing the Work Area 51 Is Too Famous For

Tito's Bunker (ARK D-0): Inside Yugoslavia's Largest Secret Nuclear Command Center

Deadwood, South Dakota: The Lawless Gold Town Where Wild Bill Died and the Wild West Became Legend

Baikonur Cosmodrome: The Secret Spaceport That Hid Rocketry's Worst Disaster

Skull and Bones: Yale's Most Powerful Secret Society and the Tomb It Runs From

Bohemian Grove: The Secret Redwood Camp of America’s Powerful Men

Pitigliano, Italy: The Cliff Town, the Jewish Ghetto, and the Roads of the Dead

Derinkuyu: The 18-Story Underground City That Sheltered 20,000 People Beneath Cappadocia

House of the Temple: The Masonic Tomb That Guards a Dead Confederate in Washington

Freemasons' Hall: The Secret Society Headquarters Hiding in Plain Sight in London

Harardhere: The Somali Town That Listed Piracy on a Stock Exchange

Eyl: The Puntland Fishing Town That Became the Face of Somali Piracy

McMurdo Station: Antarctica's Largest Settlement and the Nuclear Reactor It Buried at the Bottom of the World

Teufelsberg: The American Spy Dome on Top of 75 Million Cubic Yards of Buried Berlin

Menwith Hill: The Largest American Spy Base on British Soil

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