  
Sue leads us deep into the bowels of the
earth.
The tourist route extends to level three only - to the
depth of 135 meters. During the two and half hour tour, visitors travel
underground approximately 3.5 km., along passages totaling more then 320
km. During this time they will visit 30 of the more than 2148 chambers.
For a tour
of the mine click here After going down stairs 135
meters deep then walking 45 minutes through a series of tunnels the mine
opens up to this huge underground chapel. Everything you see is
carved out of the salt. The tiles on the floor are the salt rock
carved to look like tile. the alter and statues along the wall are
carved out of the salt rock wall, even the jewels that make up the chandelier
are made of pure salt crystals.
The mine was started in the 15th century. Religious
themes abound throughout the mine as they were first used as a form of
prayer keep the miners safe. Our guide talked at length about the
frequent cave-in's and explosions in the early days of the mine. It
was a bit scary to hear these stories when you were so far under ground.
|