Urban exploration

Light painting inside an abandoned limestone quarry in France.

Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof-and-tunnel hacking) is the exploration of man-made structures, usually abandoned ruins or not usually seen components of the man-made environment. Photography and historical interest/documentation are heavily featured in the hobby and, although it may sometimes involve trespassing onto private property, this is not always the case.^[1]^{[failed verification]} Urban exploration may also be referred to as draining (a specific form of urban exploration where storm drains or sewers are explored), urban spelunking, urban rock climbing, urban caving, building hacking, or mousing.

The nature of this activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and, if done illegally and/or without permission, the possibility of arrest and punishment; some activities associated with urban exploration violate local or regional laws and certain broadly interpreted anti-terrorism laws, or can be considered trespassing or invasion of privacy.^[2]

Exploration sites[edit]

Urban explorers at the entrance of a technical gallery under construction in Paris, France

Abandonments[edit]

Abandoned Salbert fortifications

Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of urban exploration. At times, sites are entered first by locals and may suffer from large amounts of graffiti and other acts of vandalism, while other locations may be better preserved. Although targets of exploration vary from one country to another, high-profile abandonments include amusement parks, grain elevators, factories, power plants, missile silos, fallout shelters, hospitals, asylums, schools, poor houses, and sanatoriums.

In Japan, abandoned infrastructure is known as haikyo (廃墟) (literally "ruins"), but the term is synonymous with the practice of urban exploration.^[3] Haikyo are particularly common in Japan because of its rapid industrialization (e.g., Hashima Island), damage during World War II, the 1980s real estate bubble, and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.^[4]

Many explorers find decay of uninhabited space to be profoundly beautiful, and some are also proficient freelance photographers who document what they see, as is the case with those who document some of the infrastructure of the former USSR.^[5]

Abandoned sites are also popular among historians, preservationists, architects, archaeologists, industrial archaeologists, and ghost hunters.

Active buildings[edit]

Another aspect of urban exploration is the practice of exploring active or in use buildings which includes gaining access, by various means, to secured or "member-only" areas, mechanical rooms, roofs, elevator rooms, abandoned floors, and other normally unseen parts of working buildings; the term "infiltration" is often associated with the exploration of active structures. People entering restricted areas may be committing trespass, and civil prosecution may result.

Catacombs[edit]

Catacombs (France)

Catacombs such as those found in Paris,^[6] Rome, Odessa, and Naples have been investigated by urban explorers; the Mines of Paris, comprising much of the underground tunnels which are not open to public tourism like the catacombs, have been considered the "Holy Grail" by some due to their extensive nature and history. Explorers of these spaces are known as cataphiles.

Sewers and storm drains[edit]

Storm drain outfall in Saint Paul, Minnesota

Entry into storm drains, or "draining", is another common form of urban exploration. Groups devoted to the task have arisen, such as the Cave Clan in Australia. Draining has a specialized set of guidelines, the foremost of which is "When it rains, no drains!" The dangers of becoming entrapped, washed away, or killed increase dramatically during a heavy rainfall.

A small subset of explorers enter sanitary sewers. Sometimes they are the only connection to caves or other subterranean features. Sewers are among the most dangerous locations to explore owing to risk of poisoning by buildups of toxic gas (commonly methane and hydrogen sulfide).

Transit tunnels[edit]

Diesel trains in a tunnel of Metro-2 D6 line in Moscow, Russia

Exploring active and abandoned subway and underground railway tunnels, bores, and stations is often considered to be trespassing and can result in civil prosecution, due to security concerns; as a result, this type of exploration is rarely publicized. An important exception to this is the abandoned subway of Rochester, New York, the only American city to have an abandoned, formerly used, subway system; the Cincinnati subway is also abandoned, but was never completed and placed into service. In London, there are a number of stations on the London Underground network that have been closed over the years, with Aldwych tube station being a popular location for explorers.

Utility tunnels[edit]

Utility tunnel in the center of Zurich, Switzerland

Universities, and other large institutions such as hospitals, often distribute hazardous superheated steam for heating or cooling buildings from a central heating plant; these pipes are generally run through utility tunnels, which are often intended to be accessible solely for the purposes of maintenance. Nevertheless, many of these steam tunnels, especially those on college campuses, often also have a tradition of exploration by students; this practice was once called "vadding" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, though students there now refer to it as roof and tunnel hacking.

Some steam tunnels have dirt floors, poor lighting and temperatures upwards of 45 °C (113 °F). Others have concrete floors, bright light, and more moderate temperatures. Most steam tunnels have large intake fans to bring in fresh air and push the hot air out the back, and these fans may start without warning. Most active steam tunnels do not contain airborne asbestos, but proper breathing protection may be required for other respiratory hazards. Experienced explorers are very cautious inside active utility tunnels, since pipes can spew boiling hot water or steam from leaky valves or pressure relief blowoffs. Frequently there are puddles of muddy water on the floor, making slips and falls a special concern near hot pipes.

Steam tunnels have generally been secured more heavily in recent years, due to their frequent use for carrying communications network backbone cables, increased safety and liability concerns, and perceived risk of their use in terrorist activities.

Popularity[edit]

The rise in the popularity of urban exploration can be attributed to its increased media attention. Recent television shows, such as Urban Explorers on the Discovery Channel, MTV's Fear, and the Ghost Hunting exploits of The Atlantic Paranormal Society have packaged the hobby for a popular audience; the fictional film After... (2006), a hallucinatory thriller set in Moscow's underground subways, features urban explorers caught up in extreme situations. Talks and exhibits on urban exploration have appeared at the fifth and sixth Hackers on Planet Earth Conference, complementing numerous newspaper articles and interviews.

Another source of popular information is Cities of the Underworld, a documentary series which ran for three seasons on the History Channel, starting in 2007; this series roamed around the world, showing little-known underground structures in remote locales, as well as right under the feet of densely packed city-dwellers.

With the rise in the relative popularity of the hobby due to this increased focus, there has been increasing discussion on whether the extra attention has been beneficial to urban exploration as a whole; the unspoken rule of urban exploring is "take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints", but because of the rising popularity, many individuals who may have other intentions are creating a concern among many property owners.

Safety and legality[edit]

Hill 60 bunker. On the right is a corridor leading to the bunker complex and on the left is the "mushroom tunnel".

Urban exploration is a hobby that comes with a number of inherent dangers. For example, storm drains are not designed with human access as their primary use, they can be subject to flash flooding and bad air. There have been a number of deaths in storm water drains, but these are usually during floods, and the victims are normally not urban explorers.^[7]

Many old abandoned structures feature hazards such as unstable structures, unsafe floors, broken glass, the presence of unknown chemicals and other harmful substances (most notably asbestos), stray voltage, and entrapment hazards. Other risks include freely roaming guard dogs and hostile squatters; some abandoned locations may be heavily guarded with motion detectors and active security patrols, while others are more easily accessible and carry less risk of discovery.^[8]

Asbestos is a long-term health risk for urban explorers, along with breathing in contaminants from dried bird feces, which can cause a condition known as pigeon-breeder's lung, a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Urban explorers may use dust masks and respirators to alleviate this danger; some sites are occasionally used by substance abusers for either recreation or waste disposal, and there may be used or infected syringe needles en route, such as those commonly used with heroin.

The growing popularity of the activity has resulted not just in increased attention from explorers, but also from vandals and law enforcement; the illicit aspects of urban exploring, which may include trespassing and breaking and entering,^[9] have brought along with them critical articles in mainstream newspapers.^[10]

In Australia, the website of the Sydney Cave Clan was shut down by lawyers for the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, after they raised concerns that the portal could "risk human safety and threaten the security of its infrastructure".^[10] Another website belonging to the Bangor Explorers Guild was criticized by the Maine State Police for potentially encouraging behavior that "could get someone hurt or killed";^[10] the Toronto Transit Commission has used the Internet to crimp subway tunnel explorations, going as far as to send investigators to various explorers' homes.^[10]

Jeff Chapman, who authored Infiltration, stated that genuine urban explorers "never vandalize, steal or damage anything"; the thrill comes from that of "discovery and a few nice pictures".^[10] Some explorers will also request permission for entry in advance.^[11]

Rooftopping[edit]

Rooftopping in Hong Kong

"Rooftopping" refers to the ascent of rooftops, cranes, antennas, smokestacks, etc., usually illegally, and for the purpose of getting an adrenaline rush and taking selfie photos or videos and panoramic photographs of the scene below.^[12] It has been especially popular in Russia.^[13]

Photographic documentation[edit]

Many urban explorers adhere to the philosophy of cave explorers and outdoors hikers: "Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints."^[14] Some are photographers who specialize in documenting urban ruins and scenes of industrial decay. Professional photographers working in this field include Julia Solis, Rebecca Lilith Bathory Johnny Joo, Seph Lawless, and Andrew L. Moore. Other well-known photographers, such as Jan Saudek, use the interiors of abandoned buildings as backdrops for their figurative and portrait works. In recent years a popular photography blog PetaPixel has run numerous stories about urban exploration photography.

Methods and technology[edit]

Some urban explorers use head-cams such as GoPro or other helmet cameras for videos.^[15]^[16]^[17]

Some also use quadcopter drones for exploration and recording.^[18]^[16]

The location-based games Ingress^[19] and the following Pokémon Go^[20]^[21] based on the former have urban exploration elements. While some are concerned with keeping certain sites secret from the public at large, mainly to prevent vandalism, several apps dedicated to urban exploration exist.^[22]^[23]

In popular culture[edit]

Urban exploration is featured in a number of works, in a variety of media, such as:

Literature[edit]

Bradley L. Garrett's Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City (2013)
John Green's novel Paper Towns (2008)
James Rollins' Sigma Force novel 6.5, The Skeleton Key (2010)

Television[edit]

Red Bull TV launched URBEX – Enter At Your Own Risk on 1 August 2016, an 8-part series about the motivations, mindsets, and adventures of urban explorers.^[24]
Travel Channel aired Off Limits (2011–2013), a series based on urban exploration hosted by Don Wildman.
Unforgettable's "Maps and Legends" (season 2, episode 7) featured urban exploration.