About 7 miles southeast of Krakow is the UNESCO world heritage site, Wieliczka Salt Mine. The mine is over 700 years old. I took the train to get there but I thought the bus station was charming.

The mine has nine levels. Tourists only descend to the third. After walking down about 380 of the 800 stairs, some of the sculptures you encounter are of Copernicus and King Casimir III the Great.

This scene depicts a legend about Princess Kinga of Poland’s engagement.

At some point you reach the largest of the four chapels, which has an altar and chandeliers sculpted from salt. It can accommodate about 400 people for Sunday morning mass.

At 1,073 feet, the mine is deeper than the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Pure salt is translucent… think about salt lamps.

There are a few lakes in the mine. The guide said it would take about 7 weeks to explore the entire mine.

To provide some prespective of the sheer size, I took this picture looking up at the ceiling. Rock salt stopped being mined here in 1996 but evaporated salt is still produced from the brine.