WIELICZKA SALT MINE

The 'Wieliczka Salt Mine', in the town of Wieliczka, in Poland's Kraków metropolitan area, has been in continuous operation since the 13th century, and still produces table salt. It is one of the world's oldest operating salt mines (the oldest is at Bochnia, Poland, 20 kilometers from Wieliczka).
The mine reaches down to a depth of 327 meters, and is over 300 km long.
The Wieliczka salt mine features a 3.5-km tourist route (less than 1% of the length of the mine's passages) that includes statues of historic and mythic figures, all sculpted by miners out of the rock salt. Even the crystals in the chandeliers are fashioned of salt. Also featured are beautifully carved chambers, chapels, an underground lake, and exhibits on the history of salt mining. The mine is justly referred to as "the underground salt cathedral of Poland."
Some 800,000 persons visit the mine each year.
Over the centuries, visitors to this site have included Nicolaus Copernicus, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Dmitri Mendeleyev, Bolesław Prus, Ignacy Paderewski, Robert Baden-Powell, Jacob Bronowski (who filmed segments of ''The Ascent of Man'' in the mine), Karol Wojtyła (the later Pope John Paul II), former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and crowned heads.
During World War II, the salt mine was used by the occupying Germans as housing for war-related production plants.
The awe-inspiring, ancient labyrinthine salt mine helped inspire the Labyrinth scenes in Bolesław Prus' 1895 historical novel, ''Pharaoh''.
In 1978 the Wieliczka salt mine was placed on the original UNESCO roster of World Heritage Sites.

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References

See also

External links

Photos

References

★ Jerzy Grzesiowski, ''Wieliczka: kopalnia, muzeum, zamek'' (Wieliczka: the Mine, the Museum, the Castle), 2nd ed., updated and augmented, Warsaw, Sport i Turystyka, 1987, ISBN 83-217-2637-2.

★ Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Wieliczka Salt Mine," ''The Polish Review'', 1997, no. 3, pp. 349-55.

See also

★ Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in Zipaquirá, Cundinamarca, Colombia

★ Bochnia

★ ''Pharaoh'' (novel by Bolesław Prus)

External links

★ Official website

★ Welcome to The Salt of the Earth

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★ Digging for salt

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★ Photo gallery

★ Wieliczka Salt Mine - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

★ Wieliczka salt mine

★ Video tour of mine

★ Wieliczka Salt Mine

★ Ancient salt-works

★ Cracow Salt-Works Museum in Wieliczka (plan of mine)

★ Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow in Poland

★ Air Pollution Intrusion into the Wieliczka Salt Mine