The ground beneath CERN holds a maze of tunnels, access routes and excavations. Although few people know about them, these basements go quite far, allowing you to get from one building to another without going oustide (very useful when it rains!) These basements a like something from a horror film or a computer game, with flickering lights, hissing pipes, and ominous echoes. Here are some photos I took on an expedition through the basements one evening. Despite exploring the basements several times, often for an hour or more, I've still only seen about a quarter of what they have to offer.
Map of the basements.
These photos can only give you an idea of what it's like down there. The most interesting parts can't be photographed easily because there simply isn't space. Of course the photos leave out a lot of the most interesting asepcts, the sounds, smells and feel of the basements. There are all sorts of spooky sounds there, from distant dooes slamming, to the floor beneath you groaning, to humming lights, to hissing pipes. One time I even heard someone playing the piano, which was a very surreal experience. The temperature changes drastically, as you move from a confied tunnel carrying hot water pipes, to an almost empty tunnel with an grate to the outside world. Humidity changes from arid, in the less used tunnels, to very wet if you're unlucky enough to come across a leak. The heights of the ceilings change too, from very high (often giving space for even more pipes and wires) to so low that you have to duck for 50m just to get through. Most of the tunnels are very small once you take the pipes into account, but the tunnels that are used the most are usually quite wide.
I don't know what the basements are or were used for beyond what's obvious. These days they house water pipes, electricity cables, ethernet cables and perhaps some other utlities. (There may even be some cryogenics somehwere down there!) I'd like to think that they once held some beam lines for early experiments. The basements seem to include one of the rings of the LHC, although this is locked off, for safety. They obviously see quite a lot of use, as there are working telephones down there, maps, regular exit points and even signs telling you which building you're under. They are regularly maintained too, as there is rat poison and the odd fire extinguisher down there. Some of the romos are used for storage, or perhaps even makeshift workshops. The most unusual additions are the library stacks (which were recently moved from the ground floor of the library) and even a music room! There are also rumours of a species of owl that is only found in the basements of CERN. (Okay, I made that part up...)
If you want a better view of any of these images, just click on them to be taken to the full res version.
A typical tunnel. Rather bleak.
Old, dusty cables. I hope someone knows what they are and what they do.
Some kind of workshop. That's an industrial vice, which is sort of creepy.
It can get quite lonely down there.
Lots of old server housings. It's strange the things you find.
These photos can't capture the whole experience. The lights hum, the pipes hiss and rattle, slammed doors echo, and the floor vibrates from time to time. The temperature and humidity change rapidly. Most of the areas are so small that it's impossible to take good photos, so what you see here are a few places where I actually had enough space to get my 6" tripod out.
There are a handful of grates keeping the tunnels in touch with the outside world.
A trusty map of the basements, showing their extent. So far I've only explored about a fifth of the basements.
Some tunnels are well lit, others aren't. This is one of the better ones.
A typical junction. Someone left some wires here!
One of the busier junctions. That door on the left leads to the music room, and the tunnel in the centre leads to the new library stacks.
These parts of the basements have fire extinguishers. There are no such luxuries as you go deeper!
Even more valves. Who knows what they do, or where they go?
Pipes, pipes, and more pipes.
The cables and pipes are above us, below us, around us, everywhere.
It's like something out of Half Life or Portal.
Feeling claustrophobic? In these parts of the tunnels the temperature varies, the ceiling height varies and there are even a few leaking pipes.
The most chilling part of the basements, literally. This part is very cold, it's seemingly vacant, and there are signs that say it's a permit-only tunnel. It looks like an abandoned nuclear bunker.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
Ancient circuitry. Does it still work? I think I just stumbled across the Submachine!
Ghostly.
One of the many cramped junctions.
Slightly different angle.
Some reassuringly modern equipment. These basements are still being put to good use!
Rust and decay.
One of the tightest corners in the basements, and the scene of some repair work.
Big hole in the floor, to pipes that go somewhere below these basements.
Believe it or not, this is one of the ways to get from the library to the cafeteria when it's raining (if you want to avoid going past the main auditorium.)
So many valves, so many colours!
If you're lucky, someone puts padding and hazard tape around low hanging pipes. If you're lucky.
A bridge over some... cables, or pipes, or something? Is there a sub-basement?
I don't know what these rooms are for, but surely they could accommodate most of the pipes!