Merkers Salt Mine Adventure

The Erlebnisbergwerk Merkers is a former salt mine in the town of Merkers, in the State of Thuringa, in central Germany. It closed in 1990, one of the countless East German mines to close after reunification, but it has since been turned into an exciting museum where visitors can experience one of the oldest and largest salt mines in the world. Katrin and I visited it last weekend with Katrins' parents and two friends of the family.

As we arrived (at ground level) we watched a brief video about the history of the mine and the geological explanation for the immense salt deposit beneath our feet. After donning a protective helmet and work overalls, we were loaded in a three-story elevator (there were about 75 people on the tour), and about 90 seconds later we were greater than 1,650 ft below ground! (Note: those with a touch of claustrophobia will probably not want to step foot in the elevator). After disembarking, we were loaded on trucks and driven to the first stop, the museum. The mine was in operation for over 100 years (first explorations began in 1876), and so the exhibits focus of the evolution of mining technology from the beginning until 1990. As the museum is large (over 15,000 sq. ft.), there is room for lots of equipment from boring machines to a collection of vehicles that used to roam over 2,750 miles of tunnels (that's correct) under the earth. In the DDR days, the tunnels even extended into the State of Hessen, in West Germany!

After the museum, our next stop was the Big Bunker, a massive room used to store salt before it was brought to the surface. The room is over 800 ft. long, 70 ft. wide, and 45-55 ft. high! The bunker held more than 50,000 metric tons of salt during peak operation in the 1980's and still sitting at one end is the largest piece of underground mine machinery in the world, a massive conveyer used to move the salt within the bunker. Today, the bunker has been turned into a concert hall and the acoustics (we were given a demonstration) are excellent.

Probably the most famous room in the mine is the Gold Room, where the Nazis stored... well, gold, towards the end of WWII. The bounty (also including over 400 famous paintings, Reichmarks, and unfortunately gold and other valuables from concentration camp victims) was discovered by American soldiers in April, 1945. General Eisenhower himself as well as Generals Bradley and Patton ventured into the mine to inspect the loot. Over 100 metric tons of gold alone were removed from this room. This was by far the largest amount of Nazi gold found in one place at the end of the war. Along the wall of the room were lots of photos of the discovery and we also watched a video (in English!) recreating the events of that day.

After about a 20 minute drive (mostly downhill) we arrived at the Crystal Grotto at a depth of over 2,800 ft. The temperature was warmer here (about 80 degrees compared to 70 in the other rooms), but there was a cafe with drinks and sweets for us (they thought of everything!). The grotto was discovered by accident by two miners in 1980. The cavern is about 75 ft long and about 10 ft high. Standing inside is like being inside a giant geode rock. Pretty cool.

The entire tour took about 3 hours and was a lot more interesting than I had expected. Don't know if we'll get the opportunity to return any time soon, but it was well worth the 3.5-hour drive from Dresden. Here are some more pics from the tour...