Secret passage
Secret passages, also commonly referred to as hidden passages or secret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel, escape, or movement of people and goods. They are sometimes inside buildings leading to secret rooms.
Others allow people to enter or exit buildings without being seen. Hidden passages and secret rooms have been built in castles and houses owned by heads of state, the wealthy, criminals, and abolitionists associated with the American Underground Railroad. They have helped besieged rulers escape attackers, including Pope Alexander VI in 1494, Pope Clement VII in 1527 and Marie Antoinette in 1789. Passages and tunnels have been used by criminals, armies (notably the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War) and political organizations to smuggle goods and people or conceal their activities.
Appearance and construction[edit]
Entrances to some secret passages appear as architectural features, such as a fireplaces or built-in sliding bookcases. Some entrances are more elaborately concealed and can be opened only by engaging a hidden mechanism or locking device. Others are much simpler; for example, a trapdoor hidden under a rug.
Some buildings have secret areas built into their original plans, such as secret passages in medieval castles, designed to allow inhabitants to escape from enemy sieges. Other castles' secret passages led to an underground water source, providing water during prolonged sieges.
Traditional Arabic houses sometimes have a "Bab irr": a secret door used as an emergency exit built into the walls and hidden with a window sill or a bookcase. The name comes from one of the six gates cut through an ancient wall in Aden (in modern-day Yemen), which was opened only in the event of a state security emergency. In modern-day Spain, the Arab fortress of Benquerencia has a Bab al-Sirr known as the "Door of Treason."[1]
Other secret passages have sometimes been added after initial building. Secret tunnels have often been created as escape routes from prisons or prisoner-of-war camps, where they are known as escape tunnels. They typically require a hidden opening or door, and may involve other deceptive construction techniques, such as the creation of a false wall. Other tunnels have been made for different reasons, such as those used for smuggling firearms, illegal drugs and other contraband.
Recent uses[edit]
North Korean tunnels[edit]
North Korea has often threatened its Southern counterpart. From 1954, North Korea has been boring tunnels to the South. Up until 1990s only four have been found by the South, but civilian tunnel diggers (남굴사) claim that there are other networks of tunnels under the South.[9] There are reports that the North has exported their skill of boring tunnels to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza strip.[10] Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner has provided pictures of North Koreans helping the tunnel boring in Myanmar. He is considered the first journalist to reveal the growing relationship between Myanmar and North Korea on strategic cooperation. He has stated that in the 1970s, Sweden exported tunnel boring machines of Atlas Copco Corp. to North Korea.
Four North Korean tunnels have been discovered. The first tunnel (제1땅굴), was found in 1974 in JangnamMyun YeonCheonKun, Kyungki Province; and the second tunnel (제2땅굴) was found in 1975 in KeodongMyun, ChulwonKun, Kangwon Province. The third tunnel (제3땅굴) was found in 1978 in ChangdanMyung, Paju City, Kyungki Province. This one is close to the capital, Seoul and extended beyond the DMZ over 400 meters.[11] The fourth tunnel (제4땅굴) was found in 1990, in HaeanMyun, YangkuKun, Kangwon Province.
Parent categories:
Secret rooms and passages: