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Secret passages, also commonly referred to ashidden passages orsecret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel, escape, or movement of people and goods. They are sometimes inside buildings leading tosecret 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 AmericanUnderground Railroad. They have helped besieged rulers escape attackers, includingPope Alexander VI in 1494,Pope Clement VII in 1527 andMarie Antoinette in 1789. Passages and tunnels have been used by criminals, armies (notably theViet Cong in theVietnam War) and political organizations to smuggle goods and people or conceal their activities.
Entrances to some secret passages appear as architectural features, such as a fireplaces or built-insliding 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, atrapdoor hidden under a rug.
Some buildings have secret areas built into their original plans, such as secret passages inmedieval castles, designed to allow inhabitants to escape from enemy sieges. Other castles' secret passages led to an underground water source, providing water during prolongedsieges.
TraditionalArabic houses sometimes have a "Bab AL-Sirr": 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 inAden (in modern-dayYemen), which was opened only in the event of a state security emergency. In modern-daySpain, the Arab fortress ofBenquerencia 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 orprisoner-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.
There have been many instances throughout history of secret passages and rooms having been used:
Builders of ancientEgyptian pyramids protected the burial chambers from tomb robbers.[2] While some passageways and chambers in pyramids were unknown until recently, they are generally thought to have structural functions rather than secretive ones.[3]
Early Christians, who were persecuted by Roman authorities in the 2nd century AD, used hidden rooms to conceal their gatherings for worship.[4]
In 1327,Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, imprisoned KingEdward II of England after the completion of acoup d'état. Edward II died in custody the same year. In 1330, small group of armed supporters of Edward II used a secret passage to attack Mortimer, who was inNottingham Castle, defended by several hundred soldiers. The attackers entered through a long, winding secret passage which led directly into the building in which the queen was lodged. An accomplice inside the castle slid back the bolts to the door, which allowed the attackers to arrest Mortimer.[5]
ThePassetto is a passage that links theVatican City withCastel Sant'Angelo.Pope Alexander VI crossed it in 1494, whenCharles VIII invaded the city, andPope Clement VII escaped to safety through it during theSack of Rome, in 1527.
Catholic priests, inBritain, used hidden rooms calledpriest holes to escapeProtestant persecution, starting from the reign ofQueen Elizabeth I.
In the 1730s and 1740s a secret tunnel betweenThe Olde Bell and the nearbyThe Mermaid Inn inRye, East Sussex was used by theHawkhurst Gang for smuggling.[6][7]
In 1789, at the outset of what would become theFrench Revolution, angry demonstrators inParis marched in the streets and stormed theBastille. The revolution spread to smaller towns, where tax offices were attacked, and to the French countryside, where peasants attacked rich nobles living in manor houses and castles. Many French royalty and nobles fled to Austria, Russia or Britain. In October, a mob of 7,000 demonstrators marched to the Royal Palace atVersailles. Although the mob managed to overcome the palace's defences and killMarie Antoinette'sbodyguards, Marie Antoinette escaped from the palace through a secret passageway.
TheMikhailovsky Castle is a castle that was built to protect theRussian Tsar Paul I from assassins. Completed in 1800, the castle's protective features included massive walls and water on all four sides (rivers and canals), withdrawbridges that were raised at night and gun emplacements overlooking the drawbridges. TheTsar also had a secret passageway built into the hallway outside his bedroom to enable him to escape if assailants managed to get past the castle's defences. However, he was never able to use the secret passageway. Forty days after he took up residence in the castle, a group ofco-conspirators killed him in his bedroom.
During Japan'sBoshin War (1868–1869), theEmperor's Imperial forces attacked the loyal retainers of theshōgunTokugawa Yoshinobu at Aizu Basin. A band of 15- and 16-year-olds loyal to the Shogun, who called themselves the White Tiger Brigade, escaped from Imperial troops using a secret passageway. When the young warriors emerged from the passageway, they saw a burningsamurai residence, which they mistook for the castle. Believing that the castle had fallen to the Imperial troops, the young warriors committed mass-suicide byseppuku (disembowelment), rather than face the dishonor of defeat.
William the5th Duke of Portland created a network of tunnels on his estate atWelbeck Abbey, during the 19th century, so that he could enter and leave the property unseen.
The Regal Knickerbocker, inChicago, Illinois, is a grand 350-room hotel built in the 1920s, during theU.S. Prohibition era. When the hotel was remodeled in 1980, workers found a secret door in one of the penthouse ballrooms, which leads to a stairway down to ground level. This may have been used to help people engaging in illegal gambling or drinking to escape in the event of a police raid.
During the U.S. Prohibition era, illegal bars, called "speakeasies", were often concealed behind, above or below seemingly legitimate businesses designed specifically for illicit bootlegging activities. InDecatur, Illinois, the third floor of Bell's Jewelry Store housed a speakeasy, agambling den and abrothel, during the 1920s and 1930s. Customers accessed a stairway from the street and entered a sporting goods shop that acted as a "front". After the customers passed through rows of shelves lined with dusty sporting merchandise, a secret panel in the wall was slid open revealing the entrance to the speakeasy and brothel.
In 1928New York City, Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns purchased a formerbordello and converted it into a bar and restaurant called the "21 Club." In 1930, they hired architect Frank Buchanan to design a secret door to hide the liquor supply in the cellar, as the place was converting to a speakeasy. To conceal the hidden door fromfederal prohibition agents, Buchanan designed the door so that it would appear to be solid concrete wall. The door, which weighed two and a half tons, was supported by massive precision hinges and faced with a concrete slab. The secret door could be opened only by inserting an 18" length of wire through one of several cracks in the concrete.
During World War II, BritishRoyal Air Force officers held captive inColditz Castle built a false wall in the attic of one of thePOW buildings, to hide a workshop where they were constructing a glider to help them escape.[8]
Guerrilla warfare fighters have used tunnels and secret passages to attack their enemies without being captured and transport arms and supplies. TheCủ Chi tunnels were used particularly during theTết Offensive in theVietnam War between 1968 and 1969 by CommunistVietcong guerillas, who made these inhospitable but sturdy tunnels their home, and transported supplies for the Offensive that were assembled through them. The tunnels contained sleeping chambers, kitchens, classrooms, wells, and medical facilities. In order to maintain the flow of oxygen from the surface, the Vietcong would cleverly disguise air vents as seemingly natural objects like termite mounds. However, the tunnels were far from homey; the Vietcong suffered from many of the elements, such as disease and venomous insects and animals. Particularly nerve-wracking to the Vietcong were the massive aerial bombardment fromB-52 bombers, which could usually cave in portions of the tunnels depending on their depths. Nonetheless, the tunnels stood up to almost everything the American military threw at them.
North Korea has often threatened itsSouthern 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 toHezbollah inLebanon andHamas in theGaza strip.[10] Swedish journalistBertil 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 exportedtunnel boring machines of Atlas Copco Corp. to North Korea.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Hamas andIslamic Jihad have built tunnels across the border between theGaza Strip andIsrael in order to enter Israel secretly, carry out attacks and capture hostages, and return unseen to the Gaza strip.[12][13][14]
On 25 January 2006 a 720-metre (2,360 ft)smuggling tunnel that crossed under the border of theUnited States andMexico was discovered. It was used to transport vast quantities ofcannabis fromTijuana intoOtay, California, for U.S. consumption. It linked two industrial warehouses and was ventilated and well lit. It, and other tunnels, have also been used forillegal immigration.[1]
Between August 2000 and May 2002 more than 1,000 ancient books went missing from the library of themonastery of Mont Sainte-Odile. Stanislas Gosse stole the books after finding an old map showing a secret entrance into the library. The route was not easy, however, involving climbing up exterior walls, a steep staircase and a secret chamber. A mechanism then opened the back of one of five cupboards. The disappearance of so many books over such a length of time confused the librarian, the monks and the police. Gosse was finally caught after he was observed onclosed-circuit television.[2]
A small number of contractors in the US and UK specialize in the construction of hidden doors and fortified secret rooms for private residences. These rooms, known as "panic rooms" or "safe rooms", are hidden, secure spaces designed to protect inhabitants in the case of a break-in orhome invasion.
The fortified doors and walls protect the occupants so they can summon help using a mobile or land-line phone. Doors and walls can be reinforced withsteel,Kevlar,sound-proof or bullet-resistantfiberglass panels. The door to the safe room can be concealed by panels that match existing walls or doors in the home.
Secret passages are used as aplot element or as part of the setting in mythological stories, fiction, and in television programs or films. Secret passages in old buildings, castles,haunted houses, and the lairs of villains or superheroes enable characters to secretly enter or exit the building, access a hidden part of the structure, or enter a supernatural realm. These passageways are often opened by pulling a disguised lever or lock mechanism. In some cases, a certain book on a bookshelf serves as the hidden trigger for the mechanism.
In Greek mythology,Hyrieus, the King ofBoeotia, hiredTrophonius andAgamedes to build atreasure chamber for him. However, the pair built in a secret entrance and stole his fortune. In the Hindu EpicMahabharata , thePandavas escape an assassination attempt byDuryodhan in theLakshagraha by escaping through a secret passage they had built earlier.[15]
In the late 1890s, detective novels featuring seemingly "impossible crimes" became popular. Impossible crimes were sometimes carried out using secret passages or doors. Subsequent generations of detective pulp fiction and mystery story authors also used the plot device of secret passages.
However, the use of secret passages in detective fiction and mystery stories has been criticised, on the grounds that it is not "fair" to expect the reader to guess about the existence of these secret passages.Ronald Knox (1888–1957), a British theologian and detective story author, argued that the plot device of a secret passage was overused in detective fiction. Knox'sTen Commandments for Detective Fiction states that "Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable." Furthermore, Knox urges that secret passages not be used in detective stories unless the story takes place in an old house or castle where a reader might reasonably expect to find a secret door or passageway.
Carolyn Wells' "impossible crime" stories from the first decades of the 20th century, such asFaulkner's Folly (1917) are often set in anupper classcountry house, where a murder takes place. There is aclosed circle of suspects, all linked to the murdered man; however, based on the layout of the house, the murder seems "impossible". In Wells' stories, the solution to the seemingly impossible crime plots tend to depend on the murderers' use of secret passageways, secret panels, and hidden doors.
Passages figure in several books of theFamous Five series written byEnid Blyton.
Many of the supposedly haunted locations the main characters explore in theScooby-Doo children's cartoon franchise have secret passageways, tunnels, and halls.
Various secret passages have been depicted inBatman fiction, usually one betweenWayne Manor andThe Batcave and another for theBatmobile to enter/exit the Batcave.In theHarry Potter series byJ.K. Rowling, the ancient castle school ofHogwarts (where much of the action takes place) contains numerous secret and magical passages hidden behind paintings, statuary, and furniture.
Inrole-playing games, secret passages, like traps, can be found in all sorts of buildings, especially indungeons and castles inhigh fantasyrole-playing games. The mansion in the board gameCluedo (Clue) has two secret passages that players can use to move to an opposite corner of the board.
Video games often feature hidden areas, sometimes as an important part of the game and other times as anEaster egg. Such areas can be a required route in order to continue or may be optional and contain rewards for the player, such as abonus stage, asecret character, extra items or a shortcut to a later part of the game. Some secret entrances are invisible, such as a normal-looking wall that can be walked through, while others give a slight visual clue, such as a cave behind a waterfall.
Parent categories:
Secret rooms and passages:
| Shared rooms | |
|---|---|
| Private rooms | |
| Spaces | |
| Technical,utility andstorage | |
| Great house areas | |
| Other | |
| Architectural elements | |
| Related | |
