The most mysterious and unreal miracle was my visit to the underground salt mine, which I called the enchanted kingdom of salt.
Wieliczka, a town near Krakow, is one of the oldest centers of rock salt development in Europe. There was organized an excursion to this extremely interesting place after the Steem Festival in 2018 and it was the final gala dinner in the magnificent underground kingdom, which will be remembered forever!
Since the Middle Ages, this place has been proudly called Magnum Sal (Wielka Sól) and has been a source of wealth for the country.
Wieliczka is 15 km from Krakow, just a few hours away by bus and we are ready to dive into the mysteries of salt. The history of this place is closely connected with the salt deposits and the mine, which has been operating continuously for over 700 years.
When we boarded the elevator that took us deep underground, I was overwhelmed with fear and uncertainty!
When we got into the tunnel, we were thrilled with what we saw here!
People, horses and various elements of people's lives were reproduced everywhere. People who worked to get salt! There were salty walls and salty water flowed!
Initially, salt was obtained by evaporating brine that was on the ground. When the salt springs ran out, they dug shafts in search of salt. This is how the mine was created, which has been operating continuously since the middle of the 13th century.
From the beginning of its existence, the salt mine in Wieliczka was part of the enterprise called "Krakow Saltworks" and was owned by princes, and then in the royal estate. Here under the ground is a carved monument to the King Great Casimir.
The company operated for almost 500 years, until the first partition of Poland in 1772. It is estimated that income from salt production and trade accounted for one third of Poland's income.
For seven centuries, 26 mines were drilled on nine levels at a depth of 327 meters and salt was extracted from 2,040 chambers. A labyrinth of almost 300 km of corridors has been created near Wieliczka.
In the ancient Polish lands, salt was used as a means of payment (in the form of salt stones), replacing metal money. Today Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of the most famous and most visited objects by tourists.
The 3.5 km long tourist route stretches along the developed part of the salt mines (at a depth of 64 m to 135 m), where miners cut more than twenty grottoes and chapels out of salt. Miners from Wieliczka left numerous traces of artistic skill in the form of sculptures and bas-reliefs. Amazing figures, fabulous caves, decorated chapels, charming underground lakes - traces of miners' work, tell how salt mines have functioned for centuries.
In 1978, the Wieliczka Salt Mine was included in the very first list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
After a few hours of walking the cold salty dungeons, we found ourselves in a magnificent majestic hall, where we had dinner at a restaurant.
Now in the underground grottoes are conferences, banquets, wedding ceremonies, New Year's balls, sporting events, concerts of the miners' orchestra, exhibitions of products made of salt. Here, underground, there is the only sanatorium of this type (in the grotto Jezioro Wessel), which is very effective in treating diseases of the upper respiratory tract and asthma.
Maybe some of you, dear friends, remember this wonderful tour?
I remember meeting 
Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed the trip to the salt kingdom :)