Wieliczka Salt Mine

There is a large ancient salt deposit under Poland that is 300 km long and 100 km wide. In the 13th century there was a salt water spring that people would collect the saltwater and boil off the water to get the salt. Salt at that time was very valuable because it was used to preserve food. At the end of the 13th century people started digging into the ground to mine the salt. People have been digging the salt out of the mine continually until 1996. The mine is massive and the miners over the years have carved statues out of the salt. The rock is 90% salt and 10% of a gray mineral. The reason the rock looks gray is because the salt is clear, so you can only see the 10% gray mineral. The first picture is the main church they carved out of the salt and they still have service every Sunday. The last picture is a manual wench they used to lift the salt out of the mine.Read more