Salt Crystals at Salzwelten Hallstatt
My visit to the Salzwelten Hallstatt was so far been a rather uninteresting one. The salt mine has over seven thousand years of history behind it and it is considered to be the oldest salt mine in the world. Back then, direct mining of salt was the only way of getting salt and this region of Austria happens to have to have a lot of them. Salt was very highly valued because of its many uses. Like for food preservation as well as for giving taste to food. There were kilometers of tunnels that were dug in these mountains and the tour only barely scratches the surface of it. This was done over the course of thousands of years. It is because of this that this region of Austria became very prosperous.
Chamber Inside the Salwelten Hallstatt
The tour at Salzwelten Hallstatt brings visitors to what essentially is the tourist route. It obviously is a curated experience for visitors which surprisingly adds a little bit of fun to the tour via the miner’s slide. There are also small exhibits here which is a welcome change from the dreary tunnels that naturally comprise the salt mine. We stopped at a chamber which has several large salt crystals on display. It is not unlike one of those salt crystal lamps that you would see in shops. Our guide took this chance to give more information about the salt mine which I honestly have already forgotten. I think I really just wanted to take photos first, geology lesson can come after.
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