page_title: Wieliczka Salt Mine
hierarchical_section_title: Wieliczka Salt Mine
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Kopalnia soli w Wieliczce - Kaplica Świętej Kingii,
context_page_description: The Wieliczka Salt Mine, in the town of Wieliczka, southern Poland, lies within the Kraków metropolitan area.
  From Neolithic times, sodium chloride was produced there from the upwelling brine. The Wieliczka salt mine, excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. Throughout its history, the royal salt mine was operated by the Żupy Krakowskie company.
  Due to falling salt prices and mine flooding, commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996.
  The Wieliczka Salt Mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument. Its attractions include the shafts and labyrinthine passageways, displays of historic salt-mining technology, an underground lake, four chapels and numerous statues carved by miners out of the rock salt, and more recent sculptures by contemporary artists.
context_section_description: The Wieliczka Salt Mine (Polish: Kopalnia soli Wieliczka), in the town of Wieliczka, southern Poland, lies within the Kraków metropolitan area. 
  From Neolithic times, sodium chloride (table salt) was produced there from the upwelling brine.  The Wieliczka salt mine, excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. Throughout its history, the royal salt mine was operated by the Żupy Krakowskie (Kraków Salt Mines) company.
  Due to falling salt prices and mine flooding, commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996.
  The Wieliczka Salt Mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument (Pomnik Historii). Its attractions include the shafts and labyrinthine passageways, displays of historic salt-mining technology, an underground lake, four chapels and numerous statues carved by miners out of the rock salt, and more recent sculptures by contemporary artists.
caption: St. Kinga's Chapel, deep in the Wieliczka salt mine
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:04:19 12:20:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "177", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:19 12:20:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:19 12:20:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "43/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "19/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "683", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "873600/283", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1456000/471", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2"}