This UNESCO registered landmark, the Wieliczka salt mines is located 30 minutes on the outskirts of Krakow, has been in operation for 900 years. It used to be one of the world's biggest and most profitable industrial centers when common salt was commercially a medieval equivalent of today's oil. Always a magnet, since the mid-18th century Krakow's Wieliczka salt mine has become increasingly a tourist attraction in the first place. Both domestic and international tourists can walk underground for about 2,000 m in the oldest part of the salt mine and see it´s subterranean museum, which took us over three hours to move through it.Over nine centuries of raw salt mining in Wieliczka has produced a total of some 200 kilometers of passages as well as 2,040 caverns of various sizes. The tourist and the safe section starts 64 meters deep and ends 135 meters below the earth surface, where the world's biggest museum of mining is located showing unique centuries-old equipment among it´s exhibits. Below the common area, some 210 meter deep, there is a sanatorium for people who are suffering from asthma and allergy conditions. People will occasionally conduct concerts, weddings and other celebrative events take place in the Wieliczka mine’s biggest chambers.
Click here to view the passionate traveler´s photos of the salt mines...
