Pakistan, a country which is often not positively described in the western media. It actually has many interesting things to explore. One of them is the second largest salt mine in the world.
It is around 170 km away from the capital Islamabad.
Why is it special?
Besides the fact that it is the second largest salt mine in the world, there is something else which makes it special. In this salt mine there is the production of the Himalayan salt. You can find it in most places of this world. The salt is getting marketed as something really special.
It is a big tourist attraction in the region, due the fact that you can walk inside and explore a part of the mines. This part is separated to the part where the workers are working. We got told, that it is
What can you see when visiting?
In the salt mines, there are many things to explore. From walking through the mines in general, many salt sculptures got built. For example, a big tower, which has light inside. The tower is representing the Minar E Pakistan. The translation is “Tower of Pakistan”.
Several salt lakes can be find in the mines. Most of them also have light, to support its beauty. Having the pink salt walls everywhere is amazing. It feels surreal, while walking basically inside a mountain and to be surrounded by pink salt. I visited salt mines already, but this one is very different, in a positive way.
Many sculptures out of salt are there as well. Including a big bridge. The bridge is the connection to many other salt pools. It is really impressive.
You can also take a little train inside the mines, but walking works as well and is cheaper.
What else is good to know?
When being outside of the mines, there are many stands, who are selling salt sculptures. For example those salt lamps, which you may have seen already somewhere. The closer you get to the salt mine, the more expensive they are. When you want to save some money, when buying them, just go a bit further away from the mine. In the end, the products are really similar to each other.
The prices of the sculptures are not much, it is a super fair and cheap price. Also due the fact that they are having so much salt, you can ask for one single stone, they will give you one for free.
When I was there, I bought a souvenir there, which was of great quality, cheap and included a memory on the trip to the Khewra salt mines.
Also, when you have time, you should check out the Katas-Raj-Temple, which is just 20km away from each other.
What does the entry cost?
For Pakistanis the entry was 400 Rupees, which is $1,6. For foreigners it is around $20, which is 12,5 times more. I personally find it not fair, but that’s my thought about it.
Due to my Pakistani friend, who took me there, I was able to just pay the local price.
I also was dressing up as a local, with my standard dress, the Shalwar Kameez. I had it in the color gray. Basically it is a big gray shirt, which goes to the knees. Underneath you have a pants, which are the same color, to cover the rest of the body. They are really comfortable to wear.
Is it worth it?
We drove around 2,5 hours to the salt mine, from Rawalpindi, a town right next to Islamabad. It was an interesting road to get there.
When walking through the salt mine, I were impressed. It looked amazing and was a great place to visit.
Besides the fact that the salt mine itself is really beautiful and a great place to visit, there are still some parts of the visit which were not positive.
- There is in many parts trash, not as much as in Pakistan in general, but it should not belong there!
- The price difference between locals and foreigners is in my opinion too high, when foreigners need to pay 1250% more. This is not seen in many countries. Due to that fact for me too high. When the price is a little bit more expensive, that is fine, just not to that extent. It is not that I would not be able to pay for that, it just feels not something, which should be.
- There are many tourists at the same time, it is hard taking pictures, without someone running in your picture. They just don’t care. Probably because they don’t know it different.
- Many things are not well maintained. Besides the fact that during our visit the light was off several times, also many attractions had no light, so it was possible to see. Also when being in a salt mine and there is no light at all, you feel quite uncomfortable.
- It is far from many places, 170 km from Islamabad and 250 km from Lahore, but to be fair, most places are far from each other in Pakistan.
Generally speaking I would say that it is worth it, when you have time. It is a whole day you gonna spend, by getting there, seeing it and getting back to the place you stay, when you are staying in the big cities.
My experience
I went there, with my host from Pakistan, his cousin and a couchsurfer from Brazil. He wanted to go with us on a trip and show us some nice places.
When arriving at the Khewra salt mines, it was great, when it was able to go in with the local price. I always enjoy it to save money.
While we walked through the mine, the electricity went off. It was completely dark, there was no light at all! Luckily we had our phones with us, so suddenly you were able to see every person putting on the flashlight on the phone. It was a super uncomfortable situation.
The light was luckily not long gone. So it was possible to explore the salt mine. Arriving at the sculptures was an amazing moment. Just impressive and great to see!
Sadly many people were there and it was also sad seeing all the trash being around. Not what I was hoping to see outside of the city.
I was always glad to find spots, without others, which worked sometimes for a short amount of time. In general it was amazing there, especially, that the temperature inside the mine was way colder than the heat outside of it.
My favorite were the parts, where you can really see the color of the salt. At some parts it was easy to see it really good and at some it was just possible seeing it just a little.
When being out of the salt mine, back in the heat. It was great seeing those local stands. It was surely touristy, but it felt really good buying some souvenirs at those stands.
I would love to hear your experiences about this place, or questions. Share it with me in the comments.
Summary
The Khewra salt mines, the second biggest in the world, are for good reason a place tourists like to go. It is a bit far off from the main cities, but of course on a daily trip it is easy to visit.
Like I mentioned, I don’t like the price difference between tourists and locals. A little bit is fine, but that is just too much in my opinion.
The place is nice to see, especially to see where the famous himalayan salt is coming from. In general, where things are from, you might even have something good in your daily life.
Also it is good to get some refreshing, while being in a hot country like Pakistan.
The local tourists were giving the trip a little bit of a negative side effect, but generally speaking Pakistanis are super nice people to know and to meet.
I would love to hear your experiences about this place, or questions. Share it with me in the comments.
Pakistan Stories: Visiting the second largest salt mine
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