Down the salt mines in Poland

Certainly different these Polish salt mines. a long way down the steps, but it was even worse when the original miners had to climb up and down the shaft on ladders.

However as this is now a major tourist attraction we were able to walk down in relative comfort and then join the trail - about two Km in length, less than 1% of all the tunnels in the mine. Throughout the mine the miners have done the most wonderful carvings over the years as they worked through the various levels of the band of salt - a residue of what once was an ocean several million years ago.

It is typical of many workmen, similar to those who dug out an decorated the various graves in the Valley of The Kings and The Valley of the Queens in Egypt, they had skills and talent and as they worked through the mine they did these carvings as a recreational activity. Now we have the most incredible underground memorial, excavated by blood and tears, lived in and which made many rich simply by the excavation of something which we now take for granted and expect on our table every day.

For me, this was yet another of these experiences which you may read about, see videos of, but has to be seen in real life to fully comprehend the splendours of.