Life in a Mining Town
We were left to our own devices at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. It was the end of the tourist route and we were told to explore the place at our own pace. There were several rooms here and I decided to take a look around. One part which aroused my curiosity was an exhibit of a small mining town, probably Wieliczka itself as it looked like back then. There it almost looked like a train set with the whole town set up around the tracks. There wasn’t a moving train though which is a pity.
Small Mining Town Exhibit at the Wieliczka Salt Mine
The exhibit shows the machines which were used to ferry stuff in and out of the mine. There were railway tracks in the actual mine but they weren’t following the main tourist route. There was a part which had a real car which was used in the mine but these didn’t figure prominently in the tourist route. Looking at the exhibit, one can see how sophisticated the operations were back in the day. I think if they had something as precious as salt then they could afford the technology to improve extraction of the mineral.
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