Salt Mine Merkers, Merkers, Germany - Salt Pans and Mines on Waymarking.com

The Merkers Mine in Krayenberggemeinde in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany, owned and operated by K+S AG of Kassel.
The mine drops 860m below the surface into the 'Werra-Revier' band of potash bearing salt. There, at a constant temperature of 28C, are 4600 kilometers of tunnels.

Both visitors and workers are lowered in the hoisting cage at over 10m/ sec (30 km/h) down to the 500m galleries. Visitors are driven on 20-kilometre long tour of the mine, seeing an underground mining museum, a room where in 1945 the 'Gold und Devisenreserven der Deutschen Reichbank' dubbed the Nazi gold was stored, the worlds largest underground bucket-wheel excavator, simulated blasting and a laser show in the world's largest underground concert hall. Also, in 1980 a crystal grotto was discovered. Here visitors see enormous salt crystals, some over 1000mm in length.

Merkers Mines are is also a visitor attraction in
The mines lie near the village of Merkel. The mines have a history over 100 years of salt extraction, and hold the record for concealing large amounts of Nazi gold during World War II. A hundred tons of gold and many works of art presumed to be stolen were discovered by the liberating United States Army in 1945.
Source; wikipedia

They claime to extract salt for the next 50 years to come.

For more info about Merkers and the Nazi Gold check this wikipedia link: (visit link)

Kind: Salt Mine Is the place still active?: yes

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