Wieliczka Salt Mines

Something I had never heard of coming to Krakow, were the 700 year old salt mines located 15km away in the town of Wieleczka. At first you would not think this was very impressive, but it turned out to be a great day, and worth the visit.

Andrea, Sean and I spent the day walking around the mines on a guided tour, and walked about 180 metres underground and around 2.5km long...but this was just 1% of the total area of the mine, giving some idea of the scale.

Built in to the mines are a series of amazing chapels, which the miners used to pray at before going to work, due to the high risk of working at these mines with Methane explosions and flooding being constant dangers. All of the statues and carvings are actually created out of salt rock (which contains about 96% salt) which enables them to be lit up creating spectacular effects.

Adding to the day was our tour guide who had an awesome dry sense of humour, that you dont normally expect from local tour guides! "Please do not lick the statues"!