The Salt Cathedral near Bogota

About 30 kilometers outside of Bogota, you can find a very unique tourism experience: the "salt cathedral". Millions of years ago - believe it or not - what is now Colombia was under water of the ocean (and now it is 3,000 above sea level...). After the water disappeared, huge amounts of dried salt integrated with the formation of the nowadays mountains (I am sure there is a more scientific way to explain this). The local indigenous communities in this area produced salt by tapping mountain river water in big ceramic containers, boil the water and then have the salt. Back then salt was worth more than gold. The European invaders started producing the salt in more industrious ways (basically using the indigenous people as slaves) and along the years the salt mining became more and more mechanized. The mountain where the current salt cathedral can be found had three levels of mining during the past few hundred years, and the most current level is huge. You really have to visit the place and see the explanatory video to get an understanding. Part of the old mine was converted about 20 years ago in a "cathedral" and tourism attraction. It is really impossible to make good photos, because the setting is so unique, but I tried. So here are a few photos to give you an impression...

At the entrance you can buy a variety of combinations of activities from guided tours to getting an impression of the salt mining. We were hosted today by friends of the national ministry of tourism, so we got "VIP treatment". Our guide was an excellent story-teller:

This is the tunnel towards the old mining area which has been converted in a tourist area and a cathedral. The making of the cathedral originated by the many religious habits of the salt miners but I can't even try to repeat the great stories our guide told us. You will just have to visit yourself. Along the way many of the old salt mine shafts have been converted in small temple-like settings, all symbolizing something of the path Jesus Christ had to make during the crucification. Here is one of these 17 or 18 locations, but making photos that do honour to the place is really not easy...

This is the larger area, the "catherdral" where at special ocassions such as Christmas and Easter ceremonies are conducted. From below (from the alter area) it looks like this:

The lighting in the old mine shafts and the cathedral area are spectacular. The photo above shows an area still rich on salt chrystals. We also did a short tour to get an impression of how the original miners had to do their work. During this tour we were shown how the salt and rock over time layered (and we are talking about a process during millions of years):

 

 

And this is how the original miners would hack away at the rocks. Salt chrystals in the rocks are much harder than you think....  As any good tourism destination, also the salt cathedral has a souvenir area since 2 or 3 years, all in the old mine shafts...

After this very interesting visit, we had a lunch in a wonderful rustic restaurant with excellent local food. I close this post with a few photos of the lunch and with sincere thanks to my hosts of the day!