Step inside the world’s largest nuclear bunkers (2024)

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Billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg might be building a 5,000-square-foot refuge beneath his Hawaiian compound, but that doesn't come close in size to the world's biggest bunkers. Built by governments and concerned citizens alike, these spectacular sanctuaries are kitted out with everything you might need to survive a nuclear attack.

Click or scroll on to explore some of the largest shelters on the planet, from Cold War relics to modern-day prepper communities.

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The Central Government War Headquarters is a secret underground city, built 100 feet beneath the village of Hawthorn, near Corsham, Wiltshire.

Sprawling over a massive 35 acres, the site was originally a quarrybefore it became an ammunition depot between the First and Second World Wars.In 1941, barracks were added, followed bya subterranean factory building aeroplane engines for the Bristol Aircraft Corporation, hiding its work from the Luftwaffe.

Olga Lehmann / Wikimedia Commons / MoD / Crown Copyright [Open Government Licence 3]

A gloomy place to work, Chilean-born British artist Olga Lehmann was hired in 1943 to paint murals on the walls of the underground factory.They had to provideLehmann with the paint as materials were hard to come by during the war. As a result, all the colours found in the murals were those used to paint British aircraft.

Lehmann painted the walls of six canteens in the subterranean factory,which took her and an assistant around eight months to complete. Still in good condition today, the artworks areLehmann's only known surviving murals and areGrade II* listed due to their historical significance and rarity.

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In 1955, as Cold War tensions ramped up, part of the Corsham Tunnels was earmarked to become the Central Government War Headquarters in the event of nuclear war.

Site Three – or 'Burlington Bunker' as it became known – wasprimed to receive Prime MinisterAnthony Eden (pictured)as well as his entire Cabinet Office, along with civil servants and domestic support staff. All in all, the 'city' would have been able to house 4,000 people in complete isolation for three months.

Jesse Alexander / Alamy Stock Photo

Over akilometre in lengthwith over 60 miles of underground roads, the site was blast-proof and held medical facilities, kitchens, canteens, offices, amap viewing room,apuband the secondlargest telephone exchange in Britain, as well asliving and sleeping quarters.

Drinking water was to be supplied from an underground lake and treatment plant, while fuel to power emergencygenerators was stored in 12 massive tanks.The bunker even contained a BBCTV studio, in case the Prime Minister needed to address the nation in a time of crisis, and arailway linethat was to provide the royal family with an escape route straight from London.

Jesse Alexander / Alamy Stock Photo

When the Cold War ended in 1991, the Ministry of Defense took over the site until it was decommissioned in 2004. Somewhat bizarrely, it wasput up for salethe following year, for a reported £5 million (that would be around £8.6m/$10.8m today). However, whoever bought it would have hadto invest in the military base that still operates on the ground above.

While the site had the potential to become a digital datastore or even Europe's largest wine vault, it seems there weren't any takers and the bunkerhit the market again in 2016 for £1.5 million(around £2m/$2.5m today). One prospective buyer was reportedly the 'doomsday realtor' Robert Vicino, who foundedVivos xPoint (more on that later), but once again the historic bunker failed to sell andits future remains unclear.

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Armijska Ratna Komanda D-0 is known to most as the ARK or – more simply – Tito's Bunker. In 1953, Yugoslav president Josep Broz Tito ordered building begin on the shelter, which wasdesigned to protect the communist leader, his family and his political and military advisors from nuclear attack.

Built underground near the town of Konjic in what is now Bosnia Herzegovina, the shelter lies more than 900 feet below ground and consists of 12 connected blocks covering almost 70,000 square feet.

Jimmy Sime/Central Press / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

The atomic shelter was built for$4.6 billion(around £21.6bn/$27bn today) and it wasn't finished until1979, one year before the death ofTito(pictured, left, with Winston Churchill in 1953).

With justthree unassuming houseshiding the entrancesto the site, at the time of its completion, only 16 people knew of its location. The workers who had built thebunker were blindfoldedbefore being transported to the siteeach day and only allowed to remove them once inside. As a result, the bunker remained largely secretfrom the public until the 1990s and today, itis much the same as when it was first completed.

Fotokon / Shutterstock

Thanks to the bunker'sdeep undergroundlocation, blast doors and supplies of food, fuel and air, its 350 inhabitants could have theoretically survived for up to six months.

Consisting of more than 100 rooms, the labyrinthine complex contains conference rooms, offices and air filtration systems, as well as residentialblocks, including the 'presidential block' reserved for Tito and his family.

Jasmin Brutus / Alamy Stock Photo

During the Bosnian War in the 1990s, the facility was scheduled to be destroyedto keep it from being captured by Bosnian fighters. However, the colonel charged with carrying out the demolition severed the wires that were supposed to detonate the explosives.

"Destroy everything you can't carry",was the order, according toColonel Sherif Grabovica. "Despite the command, I could not destroy the place where I spent the best years of my life and destroy the efforts of several generations because of the command of insane leaders."

Zavičajac / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0]

While we don't know if Tito ever set foot in the bunker, he did visit an ammunition factory very close by, which is still in operation today.

In 2014, the abandoned bunker was declared a national heritage monument. Although it's still under the control of the Ministry of Defense, the fascinating space has hosted art exhibitions since 2011,intending to turnit into a regional cultural institution. It'scurrently open to the public for guided tours.

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In the 1960s, relations between former communist allies China and the USSR deteriorated so much that another front developed inthe Cold War. As a result, in 1966China began building an enormous underground nuclear facility:816 Nuclear Military Plant.

Around 60,000 special engineers were parachuted into the wooded mountains that stand above the Wu River inChongqing and started excavating the land.

Apic / Getty Images

Soldiers built what Chinese leader Mao Zedong(pictured) reportedly hoped would become theirfirst nuclear reactor to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The result was aone-million-square-footbunker made up of 18 main caves and more than130 roads, tunnels and shafts. Thought to be one of theworld's largestman-made caves, 816 took17 yearsto build.

Imago / Alamy Stock Photo

Despite the enormous effort that went into building the bunker, the project was never finished and it closed before plutonium processing could take place there.

Inside, the air is cold and humid and the space, vast. The nuclear reaction hall is the largest cave in the complex. Its walls are almost 262 feet high and82 feet wide and it covers139,930 square feet.

Today, educational displays depict images of atomic clouds and plutonium processing, andtourists can havetheir photo taken next to a life-sized replica of an atomic bomb.

WANG ZHAO / AFP via Getty Images

The caves are kitted out with modern sound and lighting systems. Areas of the facilities that would have been actively used in plutonium processing are lit in an eerie green light that wouldn't look out of place in a science fiction movie.

The soldiers who dug out the enormous caves worked in dangerous conditions, tunnelling into the rock with small drills, shovels and dynamite. It was a dangerous job, but workers were paid the equivalent of around£1 ($2.44)per month.

Officially the death toll stands at around100, but even a tour guide who showed aNew York Timesjournalist around the plant doesn't believe that figure. "The environment was too harsh," she said.

“Ultimately we worked on the project because we thought we were working for the nation,"one former soldierrevealed. Heworked on the site from 1969 to 1974. "If we knew that in the end it would be made into a tourist site, we never would have participated.”

WANG ZHAO / AFP via Getty Images

Work suddenly stopped on the plant in theearly 1980s, and it was then used to produce chemicalfertiliser. The site was declassified in2002and opened to the public in 2010.

In 2015, 816 closed for renovation work, before it reopened a year later adorned in neon accent lighting andnewlywelcomingforeign visitors as well as Chinese nationals. As the base never had the chance to storeany nuclear material, visitors are assured that there's no need to worry about radiation on their three-hour tour.

The Canadian Press / Alamy Stock Photo

Hidden 75 feet under the village of Carp on the outskirts ofOttawa lies a100,000-square-foot web of tunnels and rooms. This is the Diefenbunker.

Building began on the shelterin 1959 as a response to the heightened threat from a nuclear Russia and it was completed just 18 months later.

Spread over four levels, the complex is made from 32,000 cubic yards of concrete and 5,000 tonnes of steel. With a 387-foot blast tunnel and doors weighing several tonnes,the Diefenbunkerwas designed to withstand a five-megatonne nuclear explosion.

White House Photo Office / Wikimedia Commons [Public domain]

The Diefenbunker was named after John Diefenbaker, the then Prime Minister of Canada – pictured here, left, with Dwight Eisenhower in 1961. As far as the public was concerned,theDiefenbunker was a military communications base.However, in 1961theToronto Telegram newspaper revealed its true purpose as a fallout shelter for565 of Canada's elite, including Diefenbaker, his family andhis 12 most senior cabinet ministers.

The revelation – alongside the fact that Canada had very few public bomb shelters – sparked a national outrage so great that Diefenbaker vowednever to use the bunker. While never officially confirmed, the cost ofthe bunker was estimated to be around CA$22 million in 1959, which is about CA$220 million (£128/$163m) today.

The Canadian Press / Alamy Stock Photo

The subterranean shelter is made up of 350 rooms, including this radio room, which is kitted out just how it would have been back in the early 1960s.

The maze of tunnels also containeda Bankof Canada gold vault, decontamination showers, a CBC radio studio, a war cabinet room, a military briefing roomand living quarters labelled for different cabinet leaders. The largest suite was reserved for the Prime Minister, although its only nod to luxury was a turquoise-coloured bathroom sink.

The Canadian Press / Alamy Stock Photo

The bunker even had an operating theatre, stocked with suppliesand medicines as well as an early blood-testing machine.

After it was completed, the shelter remained operational for 32 years. During that timeit served as aCanadian Forces Station, running 24 hours a day with a staff of up to 150 people.Until it was finally decommissionedin 1994, the bunker's storage rooms were kept fully stocked with enough fresh food and provisions to sustain 535 people for 30 days.

The Canadian Press / Alamy Stock Photo

After it closed, the Diefenbunker stood empty until it was turned into a museum in 1997. Today, curious tourists, history buffs and doomsday preppers alike can visitthe facility most days of the year, with guided tours and free audio tours available.

A more popular attraction than ever,the bunker hosts escape rooms, artists in residence, educational exhibitions and week-long spy camps for children. Curious kids can even hold their very own birthday parties, 75 feet underground.

Dynamic Photography / Shutterstock

The Greenbrier resort has stood among West Virginia's Allegheny Mountains since 1778. In the 19th century, its mineral springs lured elitesfrom across the US, including politicians, diplomats and five sitting presidents.

During the Civil War, the hotel becamea hospital and military command centreand again operated as a hospital during the Second World War before reopening in 1948. However, it wasn't the last time the resort served a military purpose. In 1959, the US Army Corps of Engineers began work on a top-secret underground bunker beneath the vast resort.

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President Dwight D. Eisenhower (pictured) had beena patient at Greenbrier when it was a hospital and he was a general in the Second World War. Later, during his time aspresident,tensions with Russia ramped up to a point that'continuity of government'in the face of nuclear attack became paramount.

So, in 1959, building ona new conference centre commenced at the hotel – what ordinary citizens didn't know was that a 112,544-square-foot hideout was being built below it. It's here the US Congress would have relocated to in the event of war.

Z22 / Wikipedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0]

Originally codenamed Project X, the Greenbrier bunker was also known as Project Caspar and later as Project Greek Island.

Buried 720 feet underground and capable of withstanding a nuclear detonation as close as 15-30 miles away, the two-storey refuge is protected from the outside world by enormous blast doors and50,000 tonnes of concrete.The vast complex was completed on 16 October 1962, just one week before the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

These doors, visible from inside the hotel, are secret access points into the bunker.

Ian Patrick / Alamy Stock Photo

The secret bunker reportedly cost$14 millionto build, which is the equivalent of around £116 million ($148m) today.

Inside, a 440-seat Governor's Hall was designed to hold meetings of Congress, while the 130-seat Mountaineer Room would have hosted the Senate. The largest room, Exhibit Hall, would have held joint sessions ofthe new subterranean government. The hotel has been using these to host conferences for unsuspecting guests ever since.

As well as offices for congressional leaders, the bunker held everything members would need to survive for six months, including a dentist's office, a hospital, an operating room, a pharmacy,a fully-stocked kitchen anda 400-seat cafeteria,decorated with false windows featuring bucolic views.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

The politicians' sleeping quarters would have been quite a bit different from the bedroomsthey were used to at home. There were 18 dormitories, each built to house 60 people in metal bunk beds.

While the bunker was supposed to be top secret, locals – and particularly the workers who built the shelter – soon guessed it was more than a hotel extension. “Nobody came out and said it was a bomb shelter, but…they weren’t building it to keep the rain off them," one construction worker told the Washington Post."I mean a fool would have known.”

Vivos

Hailed as the 'largest survival community on earth', Vivos xPoint is a city of bunkers located near Edgemont, South Dakota.Originally named Fort Igloo, the 575 concrete and steel bunkers were built by the US Army in 1942. It was usedas an ordnance depotuntil 1967, after which point the base was decommissioned and sold.

Billed by Vivos as "one of the safest areas of North America," the bunkers are positioned at an altitude of around 3,800 feet, far from largebodies of water and about 100 miles from potential military targets.

Vivos

Named after "the point in time when only the prepared will survive", xPoint is spread over an 18-square-mile area, that's three-quarters the size of Manhattan.

The bunkers are arranged over 100 miles of private road, with just one road in and out of the complex for increased security. Each shelter is buried beneath an elliptical bank of earth, designed to lessen the impact of a surface blast wave.

Vivos

Each shelter contains almost 2,200 square feet of floor space and can accommodate 10 to 24 people. At the highest point, the arched ceiling reaches 12.5 feet.

The bunkers'concrete and steel blast doors aredesigned toseal shut to stop any water, air or gas entering the space. There's asecondexit should the main door become compromised.At full capacity, the site can house more than 5,000 "like-minded survivalists".

Vivos

Owners can create their own floorplans or choose from multiple different turnkey layouts. Fully outfitted bunkers can run to tens of thousands of dollars, or new residents can spend the minimum, doing up the space slowly over time.

Vivos has even designed a 'Bunker Glamping' kit, which enables owners to fit out their shelter for around £7,800 ($10,000), excludingthe cost of a generator, composting toilet, water filter, lightingand paint.

Vivos

Currently, each bare bunkercosts from around £43,000($55,000), in addition to an ongoing ground rent of £852 ($1,091).

According to Vivos CEO Robert Vicino, demand for bunkers spiked so dramatically during the pandemic that he earned over £780,000($1m) in just one day. More recently, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its threat to use nuclear weapons hasled to a dramaticincrease in US bunker sales, according to The Guardian.

As well as xPoint, Vivos has an underground complex in Indiana anda luxury 227,904-square-foot bunker in Europe, as well as offering scalable bespoke bunkers that can be built anywhere in the world.

Oppidum

For well-heeled survivalists, Oppidum L'Heritage is the perfect place to see out the end of the world.Covering12,380 square feet and sunk 31 feet below ground, the luxury shelter can be built just about anywhere in the world – even below or right next to a multimillionaire's mansion.

Designed by French architect Marc Prigent, L'Heritage has all the opulent extras a wealthy prepper might expect.

Oppidum

Constructed to last for centuries, the billionaire bunker is surrounded by thick layers of reinforced concrete, designed to protect inhabitants from nuclear blasts. It's gas-tight, energy-sufficient and kitted out with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear protections.

It's also full of gadgets – such as this concealed hydraulically activated garage entrance. Inhabitants can also enter via a staircase from an optional helipad. From the garage – built to house multiple supercars –residents pass through two sets of custom-made blast doors, an airlock and a decontamination chamber before they reach the main living area.

Oppidum

Inside, the opulent interior makes it easier for occupants to carry on their lives uninterrupted by events playing out on the surface.

This entrance hall isengineered to counteract the sense of being underground anddecorated with hand-crafted glass chandeliers, custom-made furniture and solid wood flooring. Elsewhere, there's a dining area and lounge for relaxation, as well as a private meeting room that can be fully secured for privacy.

Oppidum

The luxurious living quarters are a far cry from the government bunkers built during the Cold War. The lounge and bedrooms are securely separated from the rest of the shelter, allowing the inhabitants to draw a line betweenbusiness and family life.

A suite of technical rooms hidden away from the main living areas sustains underground living. Twoindependent air filtration units,a carbon dioxide removal system andan auxiliary oxygen supply all combine to provide breathable air in case of an above-ground emergency.

Wateris pumped into the residence from a private underground well, separate from the public water supply, while the power supply can switch between the grid, generators or backup batteries.

Oppidum

Optional extras include a cinema, swimming pool, art gallery, gym, sauna and staff quarters to ease inhabitants through the end of days. They can also opt for an inner garden equipped witha skylight that provides a light spectrum simulation, including sunrises, sunsets and changes in season.

Unsurprisingly, theseextravagant bespoke bunkers can take between three and five years to construct andcost upwards of £46.9 million ($60m).

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