Turda Salt Mines

Going down a long stairway and into a very long passageway that used to have rails with carts to bring up the salt, you go down more stairs to the top of the main chamber. And at this point you are spellbound by the size of it. The width of a football field and the length of two football fields, it's the height that amazes you - at least fifteen storeys high. It's colossal. Narrow at the top, it broadens out at the bottom.

But, when you think that is amazing, you get shocked again when you get to the end as there is another chamber, a bottle shaped chamber that is even deeper than the main chamber. About 90m wide and 150m high, its base is flooded and there is even a small island with row boats which you can row around this chamber. Amazing.

There are actually three bottle shaped chambers and one giant rectangular chamber. They first started mining salt here around 1610, and mining ceased in 1934. There was even a large mechanical hoist that was powered by horses to bring the salt up to the rail trucks. When I arrived I just thought ’Yeah, it's just going to be a few tunnels and some pickaxes’ but I was completely blown away by the size and depth of these mines. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen.