Oldest Staircase in Europe at Salzwelten Hallstatt
Our tour eventually arrived at what is effectively the modern age of salt mining at Salzwelten Hallstatt. Basically, water is pumped into a chamber and the salt is dissolved. The brine is pumped out and processed somewhere else outside the mine. This is way more efficient compared to manually hacking at the rocks or even with machines. I thought that it was the end of the tour since we were also given a taste of the salt that is produced here. I expected that we would be led to the shop to buy stuff. However, this wasn’t the case. There was one more film what we had to watch and for this we were led to a larger auditorium.
Inside the Auditorium at the Salzwelten Hallstatt
The auditorium seemed to be much nicer than the previous ones which have seen. For one, it is larger. This one has a much larger screen. I wondered what else would be shown us since I thought that we have already seen everything. This was story of the day in the life of a salt miner. They depicted how young children would be big enough to go to the mine and help the adults out. Such is the importance of the mine to their village. Obviously, the mine is deep underground and the villagers would need to go down. They were talking about the discovery of a staircase which turned out to be Europe’s oldest. I was impressed that a staircase would even be found here considering how much it was used back then.
I thought that, okay, it is a very old staircase then and the national museum had to go analyze it. Turns out the staircase is more than three thousand years old. The conditions in the mine helped preserve the staircase. While I was underwhelmed at the presentation, I was truly surprised to know that I have been staring at the staircase all this time. I thought that I was watching a film which included the staircase. However, the staircase was actually real and it was the background of the film which turned out to be transparent. It was astounded to see how I was so thoroughly deceived by this. We didn’t get a chance to get closer to the staircase but it is in a protected environment and it is still available for viewing by visitors. I think it was a very well made film if only for this deception. I am unclear as to what the status of the staircase is. Our tour guide said that the original one is in Vienna, but Salzwelten Hallstatt’s website says the original where the archeologists found it because it would be in the best natural conditions to preserve it.
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