Comments on: Down down in the salt mine underneath the ground

Down down in the salt mine underneath the ground

dersins — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:20:00 -0800

Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland has been in operation for 800-odd years. Needless to say, this has given the miners plenty of time to carve some pretty amazing things. More photos here and here. Videos here and here. Virtual tour here. Wikipedia.

By: gwint

gwint — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:28:47 -0800

This is where they send slugs who have been very very bad.

By: gwint

gwint — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:29:45 -0800

Seriously though, this is amazing. Reminds me a little of Petra.

By: pineapple

pineapple — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:36:59 -0800

This is where they send slugs who have been very very bad. Nicely done. A while back, I read a novel called The Winter Zoo, in which the young Midwestern protagonist drops out and wanders to Krakow, where he later seduces his cousin's friend in an eerily beautiful room of an underground salt mine, carved to look like a baroque altar. I knew the author had lived in Poland and maybe the Czech Republic for a time, but still assumed the salt mine setting was totally fictional. Clearly, it's not. Thanks for the link. (Sorry I doubted you, Beckman!)

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:40:41 -0800

Whoa.

By: jonson

jonson — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:05:52 -0800

Superawesome. Thanks, dersins!

By: barnacles

barnacles — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:06:42 -0800

When I was a kid I had a book that contained hundreds of pages of multi-paragraph descriptions of interesting places all around the planet (sort of a portable geographical Wikipedia for kids in the 80s). The Wieliczka salt mines really stuck with me from that book and years later when I was traveling through Europe, I made damn sure to get my ass to Poland and see them. Long story short: I did. And they were awesome.

By: barnacles

barnacles — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:18:24 -0800

... and because I've never before had a reason to use this photo: I Love Wieliczka

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:19:39 -0800

Ha!

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:22:31 -0800

Fortunately, we got this handy-dandy pronunciation guide today. vee-yah-LITCH-ka

By: SteelyDuran

SteelyDuran — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:36:35 -0800

One deer could ruin everything...eventually. (Excellent post!)

By: uandt

uandt — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:49:15 -0800

Walking barefoot in the mine made my feet all salty. Take your shoes off if you go to the mine. It's a bit slippery, like walking on ice. Then after a while your feet goes all tingly.

By: taliaferro

taliaferro — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:03:16 -0800

awesome! thanks.

By: Catfry

Catfry — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:09:40 -0800

I had always thought salt mines were intensely unpleasant places, you know, 'sending someone to the saltmines', with unpleasant air and dry and itcy skin and things like that but it can't be that bad if people felt it worth their while to carve all those things while down there.

By: mygothlaundry

mygothlaundry — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:11:03 -0800

This is SO cool - my only previous experience with salt mines came via Miss Bianca, (scroll down, para 15)and that place didn't seem anywhere near as wonderful, even though it did have carvings.

By: letitrain

letitrain — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:13:40 -0800

I visited the mine five years ago after reading about it in a Let's Go book. The pictures just don't do it justice. It's an amazing, amazing place, and the visitor facilities and organization are top-notch.

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:14:31 -0800

WOW. Those pictures are amazing! What a great post, dersins. I didn't get to go to the mines when I visited Krakow, but now that I've seen these pictures, I will definitely make a point of visiting Wieliczka on the next trip to Poland.

By: rbs

rbs — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:16:29 -0800

I've been there. It's maybe the coolest place I've ever been.

By: dripdripdrop

dripdripdrop — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:27:49 -0800

I visited in 2000 and it was truly amazing. We were told that the entire cathedral was made primarily by 3 men over the course of 200 years. Other faves include the Copernicus statue to commemorate his trip there to perform experiments. I was there with a group of foreign university students being toured around by Polish students. As we were getting ready to leave, there was an announcement over the PA and all the Polish folks started looking a little concerned. Turns out the only elevator in the mine had just broken. We ended up spending an extra few hours down there, but it was worth it for the elevator ride.

By: dripdripdrop

dripdripdrop — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:29:45 -0800

btw- there's some better pics on flickr

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:07:11 -0800

'sending someone to the saltmines' Part of that may have been that these things are so huge that the donkeys that worked them lived their whole lives in the mine, I suppose that could be somewhat true of the miners, too.

By: dabhaid

dabhaid — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:48:14 -0800

The pictures don't quite do the scale of the place justice - it's like you'd imagine the Mines of Moria to be - and as our guide took great pains to stress, was all carved by men "using only their muscles". There's a very life like statue of Karol Wojtyla otherwise known as Pope John Paul II, who lived in Krakow for 40 years before becoming Pope. Much of the carving is alters, which gives some idea of the peril the miners felt they were in. If you do go, lick the walls - it's a bizarre feeling.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:17:54 -0800

i really want to go there.

By: Happy Dave

Happy Dave — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:55:08 -0800

I also went in 2000, again, these pictures, zey do nuffink. It's enormous, and just mind-blowingly intricate. Well worth a visit.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:07:04 -0800

Wow, this is great. Thanks, dersins.

By: Sk4n

Sk4n — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:20:27 -0800

We should bring back the Post Of The Day competition, then retroactively award an iphone to Dersins for this. Seriously.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:30:45 -0800

I'm on board with that plan.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:41:10 -0800

AWEsome, dersins, thanks for posting this.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:53:48 -0800

Is it wrong that this turns me on?

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:43:02 -0800

I was there, and thought it sucked. The babushka tour guide droned on and on, oring as hell, and the wait for an elevator to the surface was interminable. Maybe it has improved since the early '90s, though.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:43:25 -0800

oring and boring.

By: ilsa

ilsa — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:41:42 -0800

800 years eh? Seems more stable than American mining operations......

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:18:17 -0800

Incredible. Amazing post. Never imagined salt mines or salt miner creativity. Will look at my box of Morton salt differently now.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:20:12 -0800

Everything you've been posting lately is awesome, dersins.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:30:47 -0800

Thanks. I decided that I maybe needed to contribute more to the site than just some bitchy metatalk comments.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:11:42 -0800

Oh, but please don't stop those!

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:49:08 -0800

i'm going there next week so cheers for a great post.