Just outside of the City of Krakow is the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a popular attraction that was an active mine for over 800 years. There are hundreds of kilometers of tunnels underground, and a 3 hour tour covers less than 5% of them. The adventure starts with a couple hundred wooden steps down, to the first set of tunnels dug a couple hundred years ago. Some of the tunnels are reinforced with wooden beams, still the main technique in use today. Because of all the minerals in the air, the wood becomes petrified and very strong.
Tunnel reinforced by petrified wood.
Most of the tunnels had exposed salt cielings, walls and floors. We were allowed to lick them! (although the guide suggested we not lick the floors). Tastes like... you guessed it! Salt.
When water in the mine evaporates, it leaves behind pure salt residues, like in the picture below. Most of the salt is about 95% pure – it looks grey from the 5% of micronutrients. Until the 19th century people used this grey salt, which is actually better for you than our white table salt because of the micronutrients. There is actually a therapy centre in the mine for people with respiratory ailments, as the air is supposed to be good for them.
The grey salt is 95% pure. The white salt is 100% pure, and has formed on this ceiling due to the evaporation of salty water.
Another type of salt is translucent salt. There were several chandeliers made out of it – quite beautiful!
Translucent salt chandelier.
For several hundred years, salt was a valuable commodity. It was important in treating wounds and in preserving food. Being a salt miner was considered a very good profession, as you were paid with a handful of salt each day and had a longer-than-normal life expectancy because of the micronutrients in the air.
Several workers over the ages have sculped figures out of the rock after their guelling shifts in the mines.
Religious sculptures. These are life sized!
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go...
135 meters down, there is a ballroom carved out of the rock that is still used for corporate functions. There is also an enormous chapel, called the Chapel of St. Kinga. Pope John Paul II prayed here on his visit to Poland, and there is a statue of him carved out of salt.
The ballroom.
The tour ends with a rattling elevator ride up the shaft – crammed into a tiny metal cage with seven other people! Visiting the mine was a really interesting experience - not something you would usually do on vacation. The mine was still in use in the ‘90s, and even today they make salt above ground by evaporating the water they pump out of the mine.
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