Passageway in the Wieliczka Salt Mine
Our guide gave us instructions on how to go about exploring the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We were given strict instructions to stay with the group. Most importantly, we should not go off wandering in other parts of the mine which are not open to visitors. I was shocked to know that there are 287 kilometers of tunnels here in the mine, only 3.5 kilometers are actually accessible to the public. It is difficult to fathom just how much this place has been mined since it started way back in the 13th century. The mine continuously produced salt only until the year 2007. After that, the mine has be open only for tourism purposes.
Pumping Water Out of the Wieliczka Salt Mine
There was obviously a lot of planning which went into the construction of the mine. I didn’t realize that the presence of water in the mine would be a problem. Because of this, water was ferried out of the mine by screws and other mechanism to keep the moisture in the mine low. Since there was now electricity back then, everything was all done old school. Machines would be powered by humans or animals. They even brought down horses to help run the machines. It would be a pitiful existence for the horses since they would hardly see sunlight apart from the time when they entered the mine. However, the horses were actually treated very well and had dedicated keepers. The last horse in the mine was one from 2002. There probably was no more need for them in the mine since machines can do a better job.
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