The Wieliczka Salt Mine lies about 50 miles east of
Auschwitz, on the other side of Krakow. It’s ambitious to do both
Auschwitz and the salt mines in a single day, but Bob thought we were up for
it. (Of course he did.)
It was a beautiful drive through what looked like mostly farmland:
One of the oldest mines in the world, Wieliczka was first excavated as early as the 13th century and was a producing salt mine until 1996. My guess is that it makes as much money from the tourist industry these days as it used to earn from salt mining. In peak summer months, as many as 9,000 tourists/day pay the entrance fee to go down into the caves, and about a million people visit the site each year. At about $23/ticket, it’s not cheap, although it is a little cheaper for Poles and Polish speakers, and there is also a family rate.
We began our tour in this large building, which is the mine entrance and once housed offices. That tower, called a "headframe," is an above-ground extension of the main mine shaft and houses a massive pulley:
The mine is spread over nine levels, is over 1,070 feet deep, and has more than 170 miles of labyrinthine passageways and hundreds of chambers. I would not
want to be inside with no lights and no guide, that’s for sure.
It was a beautiful drive through what looked like mostly farmland:
One of the oldest mines in the world, Wieliczka was first excavated as early as the 13th century and was a producing salt mine until 1996. My guess is that it makes as much money from the tourist industry these days as it used to earn from salt mining. In peak summer months, as many as 9,000 tourists/day pay the entrance fee to go down into the caves, and about a million people visit the site each year. At about $23/ticket, it’s not cheap, although it is a little cheaper for Poles and Polish speakers, and there is also a family rate.
We began our tour in this large building, which is the mine entrance and once housed offices. That tower, called a "headframe," is an above-ground extension of the main mine shaft and houses a massive pulley:
