Salt Mines

We went to the old square in the morning to look at some more shops and get some postcards to send home. The post office in the square has an interesting shape.

It was so hot in the afternoon that we were glad we had planned to go to the salt mines, which are well underground. The Wieliczka salt mine dates back to the 13th century, and is more than 320 metres deep and there are 300 km of tunnels. The entire mine, its caverns and shafts are hewn by hand from solid salt. It was around 16 degrees underground, compared to 38 degrees in town!

It was incredible to see so many statues and wall carvings, all made of salt. Some of the carvings had quite a bit of detail too.

The highlight of the visit was the huge chapel, also made of salt, with carvings on the walls showing the progression of the life of Jesus. There was even a carving of Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" on one wall.

There were many chandeliers hanging from the chapel ceiling and it was amazing to learn that these were made out of salt crystals, with 99.9% salt content. The entire chapel, including the wall and floor carvings took 60 years to build by 3 very talented miners.

At the beginning of the tour we were told that we were walking on salt, the walls were made of salt and we could lick the walls if we wanted to eat some salt. We didn't lick the walls, but scraped them with our finger nails and it tasted very salty. We even got a little present of salt crystals for helping the guide demonstrate how an old-fashioned lift worked. We have to be careful not to get the crystals wet!

NM