“Back to the salt mine!” has a new meaning for Poland’s Wieliczka Salt Mine, which had a new record this year of 1.5 million visitors from over 200 countries.
One of the world’s most unusual, oldest and largest tourism attractions, the mine was one of the very first sites named to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
It has been worked for over 1000 years. But the attraction for visitors is the hundreds of intricate carvings of religious, historic and literary figures and the magnificent chapels, ballrooms and other areas that have been carved out of the salt.
There are over 2300 rooms and 250 km of corridors in the mine’s 9 levels. For over 200 years, it’s hosted weddings, concerts, conferences, formal balls, and even once a balloon flight. Although it’s no longer producing salt, the mine employs a large number of miners who keep the site open and safe—and continue to carve new attractions into the salt.
