Secret passage

Hidden passages and secret rooms have been built in castles and houses owned by heads of state, the wealthy, criminals, and abolitionists associated with the American Underground Railroad.

Passages and tunnels have been used by criminals, armies (notably the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War) and political organizations to smuggle goods and people or conceal their activities.

Traditional Arabic houses sometimes have a "Bab AL-Sirr": a secret door used as an emergency exit built into the walls and hidden with a window sill or a bookcase.

There have been many instances throughout history of secret passages and rooms having been used: Builders of ancient Egyptian pyramids protected the burial chambers from tomb robbers.

In 1330, small group of armed supporters of Edward II used a secret passage to attack Mortimer, who was in Nottingham Castle, defended by several hundred soldiers.

In the 1730s and 1740s a secret tunnel between The Olde Bell and the nearby The Mermaid Inn in Rye, East Sussex was used by the Hawkhurst Gang for smuggling.

The Tsar also had a secret passageway built into the hallway outside his bedroom to enable him to escape if assailants managed to get past the castle's defences.

During Japan's Boshin War (1868–1869), the Emperor's Imperial forces attacked the loyal retainers of the shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu at Aizu Basin.

Believing that the castle had fallen to the Imperial troops, the young warriors committed mass-suicide by seppuku (disembowelment), rather than face the dishonor of defeat.

William the 5th Duke of Portland created a network of tunnels on his estate at Welbeck Abbey, during the 19th century, so that he could enter and leave the property unseen.

Prohibition era, illegal bars, called "speakeasies", were often concealed behind, above or below seemingly legitimate businesses designed specifically for illicit bootlegging activities.

After the customers passed through rows of shelves lined with dusty sporting merchandise, a secret panel in the wall was slid open revealing the entrance to the speakeasy and brothel.

In 1928 New York City, Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns purchased a former bordello and converted it into a bar and restaurant called the "21 Club."

In 1930, they hired architect Frank Buchanan to design a secret door to hide the liquor supply in the cellar, as the place was converting to a speakeasy.

During World War II, British Royal Air Force officers held captive in Colditz Castle built a false wall in the attic of one of the POW buildings, to hide a workshop where they were constructing a glider to help them escape.

[8] Guerrilla warfare fighters have used tunnels and secret passages to attack their enemies without being captured and transport arms and supplies.

In order to maintain the flow of oxygen from the surface, the Vietcong would cleverly disguise air vents as seemingly natural objects like termite mounds.

[2] A small number of contractors in the US and UK specialize in the construction of hidden doors and fortified secret rooms for private residences.

Secret passages are used as a plot element or as part of the setting in mythological stories, fiction, and in television programs or films.

Subsequent generations of detective pulp fiction and mystery story authors also used the plot device of secret passages.

Carolyn Wells' "impossible crime" stories from the first decades of the 20th century, such as Faulkner's Folly (1917) are often set in an upper class country house, where a murder takes place.

Many of the supposedly haunted locations the main characters explore in the Scooby-Doo children's cartoon franchise have secret passageways, tunnels, and halls.

In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the ancient castle school of Hogwarts (where much of the action takes place) contains numerous secret and magical passages hidden behind paintings, statuary, and furniture.

Such areas can be a required route in order to continue or may be optional and contain rewards for the player, such as a bonus stage, a secret character, extra items or a shortcut to a later part of the game.