wieliczka salt mine

20/08/2023

We left our lay by Krakow car park and drove the short distance to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We were asked to move from our initial parking and directed to the main car park which had coach bays. The security guard checked we were OK with the gates being shut. The next morning I had a discussion with the parking attendant about NOT paying £20 just to park over night (no services), in addition to the £10 to park during the day. My argument was that we’d not been told and no overnight charge was shown on the price board. I was persuasive enough.

The salt mines were justifyably one of Unesco’s first World heritage sights. We walked 2.5km of the 287km of tunnels. Many have now been back filled as collapsing or flooding. We descended 135m (442ft) although the mine went a lot deeper to 327m.

*Fortunately the local area* *is covered* *in pine* *forests* *… so much* *uses in* *shoring* *up the tunnels.* *Apparently the salt* *preserves the wood.*

Neolithic man harvested surface salt from brine and the first excavations commenced in C13 until 1997, when salt prices fell and tunnels started flooding.