A salt mine may seem like an unlikely tourist spot, but this one in Krakow, Poland is 300km long and 1,000 feet deep. Travel buff Anuradha Goyal tells Shikha Kumar all about it

A pinch of ‘mine’ salt

A salt mine may seem like an unlikely tourist spot, but this one in Krakow, Poland is 300km long and 1,000 feet deep. Travel buff Anuradha Goyal tells Shikha Kumar all about it

Anuradha Goyal likes to discover things. On her travel blog, Anuradha Goyal Travels, this innovations consultant makes notes of the various discoveries she stumbles upon while travelling. There are therapeutic thermal baths in Budapest, the Goral tribal culture in Slovakia and also, revelations like the fact that Hindi is the second official language in Arunachal Pradesh after English. Two months back, a work trip to Budapest and Prague took her to Poland where she made another fascinating discovery. As she was exploring Krakow in Southern Poland, a few locals directed her to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Her first impression of the mine wasn’t spectacular, it appeared to be a fairly small building. “Only on entering the place did I realise that it is over 300 km long and over a 1,000 feet deep, with 378 steps leading down to the first level of the mine,” says Goyal. The Wieliczka Salt Mine has been in existence since the thirteenth century but commercial mining at the site was stopped a couple of years ago. “The mine contains beautiful sculptures, statues and wall carvings made with rock salt,” says Goyal. “Even the chandeliers have been made using salt crystals. The workmanship is so exquisite that light reflects off them,” she says with awe. The mine is popularly known as the ‘Underground Salt Cathedral of Poland’. On one wall of this cathedral there is a rock-salt carving of Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. Some of the famous statues carved in rock salt include those of St Barbara and Pope John Paul II. Most of these scuptures were made by the miners. “Certain chambers have statues of famous people who have visited the site in the years of its existence, like Nicolaus Copernicus, a famed scientist who studied at Krakow University,” adds Goyal. As Goyal found out in the guided tour, the chemical properties of the site were discovered when a small stream of salty water coming out of the place was seen by the natives. Till date, the mine houses a natural lake inside. “While walking through it, one can experience how the mine worked in its heydays. Various sculptures show the activities that took place at the site with wooden replicas of the equipment used,” she says. There are thin water channels that were used to transport salt water from the mine, and turnaround pulleys for the sending the salt. The mine has various chambers like an underground chapel, a ballroom and a large dining room that serves as a restaurant. The reception chamber in the mine has become a popular destination for weddings and other celebrations. There is also a wellness centre at the site. “Because of the salty air around the place, the centre serves as a healing place for people suffering from allergies and ailments like asthma,” explains Goyal. The sheer expanse of the place means that one cannot venture in alone. The mine thus has guides dressed as miners on hand to give a tour of the place. The adventurous lot have the option of treasure hunts, night tours and even a miner’s tour where the visitors don miner uniforms, replete with helmets and lamps. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is a wonderful example of turning a simple non-operational site into a tourist hotspot and a UNESCO world heritage site.