Say you find yourself in Fresno, California, on a sweltering summer day.

The temperature gauge on your car hovers around 110 degrees, and they're sweat dripping

down your face.

There's one place you can go to escape the heat, no air conditioning necessary.

But to get there, you kind of have to know where to look.

We're very unassuming from ground level.

People park, and they get out of their cars, and kind of just looking around is from

ground level, we don't look necessarily like a whole lot, because everything's really

underground.

But then, near this non-descript parking lot, you'll see a staircase.

Once our guests start walking down our entry staircase, and they start feeling that

10 degree temperature difference, and they're looking at these man-made walls and the

citrus that's growing 10 feet underground, they're just, they're just blown away.

I'm Dylan Therese, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible,

and wondrous places.

Today, we are taking you to an underground oasis, a winding maze of

rooms, and passageways filled with lush citrus trees.

And all of this is the product of one man's dedication and work over four decades.

A visit to the forestier underground gardens in Fresno, California, coming off after

this.

Think underground gardens, and you might picture someone growing plants in their basement

under a huge bank of fluorescent grow lights, a kind of dark damp and humid experience.

...