The Salt Mines

Salzburg's early growth and wealth was largely due to the salt deposits discovered in that area.  In fact the word Salzburg means literally "salt fortress" in German, also "salt castle". The names derives from the barges that transported salt down the river in the 8th century and paid tolls when they passed by.  Salt built Salzburg.

This tour was on our final day and included an underground tour of the salt mines.  It was very interesting as these particular salt mines have been in use for over 500 years.  No photos were allowed inside the mines, so a description will have to suffice.  We put on jumpsuits over our clothes and then boarded a "train" where we faced forward, strattling a bench seat.  We were seated very close and had to hold onto the person in front of us, much like riding a motorcycle behind someone.  The train moved quickly down into the mines for about 10 minutes, then we got off and walked the rest of the time.  In two places we used wooden slides to rapidly go down to the next level, sitting in groups of four on the slide.  That was really fun!

The mining technique was a surprise.  They create large underground caverns the site of large gymnasiums, and fill them with water to the very top.  The water then sits in each cavern dissolving the salt from the surrounding rock, creating a brine that sinks to the bottom of that cavern.  The brine is allowed to collect for many years before extraction begins, then they pump the brine from the bottom.  The extracted brine is then processed in a nearby plant leaving the salt crystals we all use.  They have a large number of these chambers in operation at the same time, keeping the plant busy.

One interesting observation is the color of the stream running along the road where we visited the mines.  Due to the mineral content of the rocks, the water was a cloudy blue.  You can see that in the photo below.

There a few photos in this album of the area around the mine entrance and one of some of our group wandering around a bridge.