8/7/2019 salt mine of khewra from inside

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Description

The salt at Khewra reaches the surface, it was discovered as early asthe days of ALEXANDER THE GREAT. According to a legend there was a

battle between ALEXANDER

THE

GREAT

and RAJA

PORO

in this area. AfterAlexander had won the battle, the soldiers were restsing. They soonmentioned, that the horses were licking the ground in a certain area.Here the salt reached the surface and the ground contained more saltthan in general, which the horses found out.

Long ago the locals started to mine the salt on the surface, in smallopencast mines. In 1872 Dr. WARTH, a renowned British miningengineer, built the first tunnel at ground level to access the salt layers.He introduced room and pillar mining which is used until today. At themoment salt is mined in 19 different levels, producing about 325,000

tons per year.The salt mined in Khewra - which is often called the biggest orsecond biggest salt mine in the world - is primarly used for industrialpurposes. More than half of the production, 200,000 tons per year, aresold to Imperial Chemical Industries ICI Soda Ash Khewra. Othercustomers are Ittehad Chemical Limited at Kala Shah Kaku andvarious tanneries. A certain amount of salt of the purest quality,called rock salt, is sold as table salt in the country and abroad,especially to India. A small amount is used to produce fancy goods likesalt lamps, vases, and ash trays. They are sold at the tourist mine, but

also exported in large quantities. The Himalayan Rock Salt CrystalLamps are somewhat notorious.

Khewra mine and the tourist mine are operated by the PakistanMineral Development Corporation (PMDC). It is operating four saltmines and four collieries, producing 13% of the countries coal and 52%of the salt. The underground salt mines are located at Khewra, Warchaand Kalabagh in Punjab, and there are salt quarries at Jatta andBahadurkhel in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). It isoperating and continually developing the tourist mine and establishingan Asthma Resort for speleotherapy, or betterhalotherapy. The newest

improvements are a reception centre for tourists and a new walkway tothe mine entrance.

The mine is visited on a very long tour. Visitors enter the mine onfoot, and it takes 1,5km to reach the salt. The mine is entered through along 5m high and 7m wide passage with rails on the floor. The rails arefrom a mine train, which is used to carry the salt, but there are alsotours which enter the mine on an original mine train from 1930.

8/7/2019 salt mine of khewra from inside

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Inside the mine are various attractions. Fascinating is an enormouschamber called Assembly Hall, which is 75m high. Other chambers arefilled with brine, water saturated with salt. It is lighted indirectly, whichgives it impressive colours. An area with pink salt is called ShishMahal.