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Urban exploration, or UE, is the examination of the unseen or off-limits parts of human civilization.

Targets Of Exploration

UE can further be separated into subcategories. Urban explorers do any or all of these things, but often specialize on one or two.

Abandonments

Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of UE. Abandoned sites are generally entered first by locals, and often sport large amounts of graffiti and other vandalism. Explorers often focus on the natural decay, as nature grows trees on the roof and weeds in the carpet, and unnatural decay of the structure as scrappers, looters, squatters, and vandals demolish the building from the inside out.

Common abandoned structures to explore:

• Manufacturing facilities
• Brickworks
• Grain elevators
• Houses
• Missile silos
• Abandoned tunnels such as mines, headraces, tailraces, and rail tunnels
• Hospitals, asylums, and sanatoriums

Tunnels

Active tunnels include steam, power, telephone, water, and other utility tunnels; subway and other transit tunnels; and storm or sanitary sewers.

Utility Tunnels

Universities and other large institutions often distribute steam for heating buildings from a central heating plant. These steam lines are generally run through tunnels, which are often human-passable for maintenance purposes. Universities that have steam tunnels often also have a tradition of steam tunnel exploration by students. This was once called vadding at MIT, though students there now refer to it as tunnel hacking.

Steam tunnels in general have been getting more secure in recent years, due to their use for carrying network backbones and terrorist fears.

Sewers

Entry into storm drains, or draining, is another common form of UE. 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."

A small subset of explorers enter sanitary sewers. Sometimes they are the only connection to caves or other subterranean features. Sewers are the most dangerous locations to explore, and those who explore them are on the fringe of a group that's already on the fringe.

Transit tunnels

The penalties for getting caught in subway tunnels are some of the strictest in the hobby. As a result, subway exploration is the least publicised type of exploration. New York City probably has the largest number of subway explorers.

Active Buildings

The exploration of active buildings is commonly known as infiltration. This includes seeing secured or member-only areas, mechanical rooms, roofs, elevator rooms, and other unseen parts.

Ethics

In many places, UE is a crime. Explorers generally justify their crimes as usufruct, because they enjoy the location without causing harm or depriving the owner of their property. The common but not entirely accurate catchphrase for this ethical standpoint is the Sierra Club's motto: "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints." The common code of ethics frowns heavily upon theft, vandalism, tagging, graffitti, and any other crime except for simple harmless trespassing.

Exceptions to the rule exist. Graffitti in drains is often condoned or encouraged, as long as speleothems and other features aren't damaged. Some explorers remove items from abandoned sites, to preserve them or to have a souvenir. Many locations contain a small area reserved for leaving tags, known as a guest book.

See also: Caving, Catacombs of Paris

External links

Community Resources

• http://www.urbanexplorers.net - Information and the mailing list Underground
• http://www.infiltration.org - The zine Infiltration

Group & Personal Pages

• Urbanadventure
• Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Abandoned Stations
• Urban Exploration Canada
• Basement Freaks Urban Exploration
• Action Squad: Minneapolis Urban Adventurers
• Ohio Trespassers - Ohio, PA, & West Virginia

• Subterranea