Underground refuges and war tunnels (France, Cappadocia, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Lebanon)

We have been studying underground cavities dug by man, with particular reference to underground refuges, for 25 years. Thanks to this research, the function and the organization of underground refuges in France and other countries have been better understood. Recently, a synthetic work about the use of underground cavities during war has been published in the book “La guerre souterraine” (Underground Warfare). Through this work, we are able to present two categories of underground cavities dug by man during war: underground refuges and war tunnels. For the two categories, we present in this article several examples of cavities dug in different countries and used at different times. Our purpose is to show that, despite the historical and geographic differences, all the cavities included in each of these categories present an important architectural unity. This common architecture is related to an identical function. We will also point out the existing differences between underground refuges and war tunnels.