Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
months and four days in 1993 digging a passageway that was about five feet tall and three
feet wide. Once completed, Sarajevans could enter the basement of an apartment building,
hunch over and hike through thickly humid air for 20 minutes, and emerge at a house on
the other end. (After a heavy rain, the tunnel would fill with water, making the hike even
moreunpleasant.)Fromthehouse,theycouldhikeoverthemountainstogetsupplies.While
money was scarce, cigarettes produced at Sarajevo's factory could be traded for what was
needed, which was carried back over the mountains and through the tunnel. Eventually the
tunnel was wired to also supply electricity and natural gas into the city, and was equipped
with rails to more efficiently transport goods on wheeled carts. The tunnel was open to any
Sarajevan—and people usedittoshuttle backandforth,dayandnight—but itwascarefully
monitored for smugglers who might use it to profit from the tragedy inside the city. While
the besieging enemy knew about the tunnel, its nonlinear course underground made it im-
possible for them to know exactly where it was—and even if they had known, to destroy
it they'd have had to go through the UN-controlled airport. The best they could do was to
relentlessly bombard the tunnel's entrances.
