Although is place is technically not in Islamabad, I’m including it in my Islamabad Diaries because we visited the salt mines en route to Islamabad.
The Khewra Salt Mines is located in Khewra (why am I so obvious 🙂 …)and it’s Pakistan’s largest and oldest salt mine. The salt reserves at Khewra were discovered when Alexander the Great crossed the region during his Indian campaign. The mine was discovered, by his army’s horses, when they were found licking the stones. During the Mughal Era, the salt was traded in various markets. Estimates of the total reserves of salt in the mines range from 82 million tons to 600 million tons (that a lot!)
Our tour guide during this trip was very funny and engaging, we really enjoyed a lot with him explaining everything.
It was incredibly hot when we entered were outside. Outside the mines, you could see mountains and camels/goats walking around
We bought our tickets and headed to the trolly. It was unbearably hot, but as the trolly moved into the caves, we got a breath of fresh air! It was really refreshing, the mine was nice and cool but it smelled kind of weird.
We saw many different parts of the salt mine. They had a masjid and Minar-e-Pakistan (this is a different link than the first one) made out of salt, as well as a mini-hospital!
We saw different salt lakes and even the special “Sheesh Mahal” (not this Sheesh Mahal!) which you could only enter by walking across a salt bridge.
Everything there was made out of salt, even the walls (maybe the floors I don’t remember if they were)
I, being the daredevil that I am (no I’m just stupid), licked one of the salt walls when the tour guide said it would increase your lifespan (he was joking of course).
Overall I had a lot of fun seeing this place, it reminded me of Luray Caverns in Virginia.
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