How Many Levels Does Silo Have? Explained

We’re used to post-apocalyptic shows being set in a wide variety of bizarre environments, mostly because people have to make to with what they have at their disposal. Apple TV’s ‘Silo,’ naturally, has one of the most interesting locations in the given genre. It takes place inside a mammoth of a Silo, capable of housing and supporting at least 10 000 people at any given time. Due to that, many fans were wondering how many levels does Silo have? 

Silo 18 has 144 known floors that are currently in use, ranging from administrative offices to farms that provide food and general housing floors with apartments for either single occupants of the Silo or entire families. Even though 144 floors are known and explorable, there are at least four additional unexplored floors underneath the Mechanical where the generator is, where the massive digging device is located, as well as other secrets. 

Now that we’ve covered the number of floors in Silo 18, it’s time to analyze the details as well as the floor plan of an entire Silo. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading! 

The building of Silo was one of the most ambitious projects in human history

Without spoiling too much, it’s enough to say that the mere feat of building those massive Silos took many years of planning, execution, and resources. Silos were built to control the population in case of a catastrophe taking place in the outside world. Silos needed to be big enough, durable enough, and self-sustainable enough to ensure that the human race would be able to “outlast” whatever was going on outside. 

This is why Silo has 144 floors, and although it doesn’t seem like much, the number is shocking, and there are plenty of references both in the books and in the live-action series that describe how difficult and time-consuming is to move from one far end of the Silo to another. Depending on your age and physical fitness, of course. 

Silo has been housing thousands of people for several centuries at this point, and many generations have been born, raised, and died in that concrete mammoth, and this was only possible because the designers thought about everything.

Silo levels are generally divided into three parts 

Silo as a building is divided into three parts. Floors 1-48 are considered to be Upper floors. Those floors generally house the vast administrative offices, such as the famous Juidical, the infamous I.T. department, Mayor’s office, Sherriff’s office, apartments, schools, nursery, and various other socially oriented structures necessary for every functioning society to have. 

Floors 49-96 are colloquially known as the “mids.” This is where the majority of the food is produced, and little is known about them except that this is where farms are organized and where people go to shop. There are apartments here as well since not all population of the Silo can be crammed into the first few floors. No matter have massive they are. 

Floors 97-144 are known as the lower part of the Silo, and this is where the majority of the life-sustaining resources are generated. There is at least one water plant located on the lower floors. This is where the supplies are located, and of course, the recycling and generator. 

In the last week’s episode, we saw Juliette taking some stuff that used to belong to her deceased mother and brother to the recycling. Since Silo has limited resources at its disposal, it’s important to recycle as many things as possible to prolong their lifespan.

The lower floors are also the home of the Mechanical, where the generator is located. This massive generator provides electricity for all of Silo 18. There is at least one more backup generator, but as we’ve already seen in the series, its power output is not nearly enough to provide adequate power levels to keep the lights on throughout the entire Silo. 

Beneath the Mechanical, there are secret floors as well, but those are generally uncharted. We could see Juliette exploring the massive artificial cavern with plenty of water and the remnants of what appears to be a giant digging machine. 

There is a strict social hierarchy in the Silo and it’s largely affected by the floor you’re living on 

We’ve already seen a couple of examples where people looked down upon Juliette simply because she comes from Mechanical, which is one of the lowest levels of the Silo.

Even though the whole population of the Silo is generally in a terrible place, they still managed to form strict social hierarchies, with people living on the lower levels generally considered to be “savage” and “easily replaced.” Even though they are performing vital functions for the whole Silo and without their input, society wouldn’t be able to function.