Soledar, salt mines: description, history, excursions and interesting facts

Each of the small towns has that cherished, which is called its main attraction. All the townspeople know about it, it is always shown to guests and tourists. Ukrainian Soledar with such a relic was lucky - the salt mines of this city impress not only compatriots, but also tourists from all over the world.

Salt Mine of Soledar: introduction

Soledar, whose salt mines will be the topic of our story, is a quiet, calm city, the administrative unit of Artemovsk. Its main attraction is hidden at a depth of about 300 meters - in the middle of a huge salt bed in the bowels of the earth, in the mine workings. Since the site is visited daily by hundreds of tourists, it is not necessary to celebrate its uniqueness. According to many of them, according to impressions, a walk through a deep underground salt mine can not be compared with anything. A descent into it on a miner's elevator is an additional adventure seasoned with acute emotions.

Today Soledar's salt resources are being developed by the Ukrainian company "Artemsol". The deposit is considered to be unique - the extracted salt does not contain any impurities, i.e., after production it can be immediately packaged and sent for sale. In addition to its industrial activities, the company has established not only a tourist, but also a medical direction - in the mines is located the famous speleosanator "The Salt Symphony", the features of which we will further necessarily touch upon.

How to get to the salt mines

Salt mines can be found by coordinates: Ukraine, Donetsk region, Soledar, ul. Oktyabrskaya, 11 (Artyomsol, mine No. 1, 3 - ventilation trunk 3-bis). You can get to the location in two ways:

1. By train to the station "Sol" from the points Donetsk, Gorlovka, Nikitovka, Artemovsk. The price of one-way trip is about 11 hryvnia (about 50 rubles). From the station by bus to the stop "Lyceum" (the local population also calls it "Speleosanatorium", "Bursa", "School"). The bus schedule is coordinated with the arrival of electric trains.
2. From the Artyomovsk autostation "city-suburb". You will need buses 122 and 123 to the stop "Lyceum" (4-5 hryvnia).

Soledar, salt mines: excursions, price

Excursion is conducted on the processed mines of mine No. 1-3 (camera No. 41-bis). The length of the route is 700 m. Be sure to take with you warm clothes (the temperature here is not higher than 14 degrees) and comfortable shoes with a thick sole - on the way there will be salt "pebbles" up to 40 mm in diameter. Be careful - in the mine it is forbidden to use fire, so it is better not to take lighters, matches, etc. with Soledar.

Excursions to salt mines (the schedule of work - six days a week, except Monday, at 11.00, 13.00, 15.00) are very popular. It is also necessary to pre-record - it can be coordinated on the official website of "Artemsol" or when calling guides to the numbers indicated on this resource.

For 1 hour and 40 minutes you will inspect the salt mines of Soledar. Excursions cost is 100 hryvnia (about 250 rubles) per visitor. Children under 10 years of age are not allowed to visit the mine. Also, the composition of the group must consist of 10 to 60 people.

What awaits you on the tour

Before the descent, safety instruction is provided, all visitors receive mining helmets. The tourists get to the place in the present miner's crate-elevator at a speed of 4 m / s. The exact depth of the salt mines is 288 m.

Underground you have to spend about an hour and a half. In the course of your route you will definitely see:

• Mine workings in the thickness of the purest salt (floor, ceiling, the walls here are completely salt - you can even taste them), stroll through caves up to 30 meters high, dug by a combine;
• Figures made of salt made by local craftsmen (miner, palm tree, good Shubin (miner's god), gnomes - all figurines are highlighted with colored lights that are unusually poured on salt crystals);
• Underground chapel with icons;
• A huge room (height - 40 m, width - 100 m), where you can take off your shoes, walk around the salt "sand" and even play football - there is a gate and a ball, and "lawn" - 100% NaCl;
• 6-meter New Year's green tree, which for several years is here and does not wither because of the healing air;
• Underground cafe with coffee, tea, sweets;
• A film about the history of the Soledar mines, the technology of salt production, interesting facts about this place.
• Collection of packages for salt, packaged for export.

By length, the walk replaces about 15 saline inhalations, so if a tourist has a sore throat or a cold, by the end of the tour he can completely get rid of unpleasant symptoms. However, work in such a mine is characterized by the opposite effect: salt dust, weighed in the air due to the combine's work, corrodes the lungs, which negatively affects the health of miners.

Interesting facts about the mine

During the tour you will learn and see a lot of interesting about Soledar, salt mines:

1. In 2003, the underground gallery set a record for the book Guinness - underground aeronautics in a balloon.
2. In 2004, an underground concert was held there with the participation of the Donbass Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of the Austrian K. Schmid and Victoria Lukyanets, the soloist of the Vienna Opera. By the way, according to musicians, in the world there are very few theaters that can compete with the acoustics of Soledar's mines. Therefore, often there are concerts, exhibitions of artists.
3. An excursion to Soledar's salt mines will also show one of the valuable exhibits - a salt palm tree, which is an exact copy of the Donbass symbol, the palm trees of the "Mertsalov".

Tourists can also visit the Soledar Reserve of Blue and Silver Spruce, the only one in Ukraine.

History of salt mines of Soledara

The whole history of the territories of the Donetsk basin is connected with salt production. As historians suppose, its inhabitants knew how to evaporate the spice from the salt brine of the Bahmut and Torsk lakes, which once were in place of mines, before the Nativity of Christ. But only in the XVII century, the production of salt here has become permanent. By the way, a large share of the coal mined here was primarily spent on salt production, and only then on metallurgy and other industries.

Although in the XVIII century, many knowledgeable people talked about the huge salt reserves in the place of modern Soledar, only the geologist AP Karpinsky could substantiate this hypothesis in 1880. Also in the years 1876-1880. The "government well", built according to the technology of mining engineer PI Ivanov, showed that up to 9 salt strata are found in the thickness of the earth, among which the most grandiose was the 40-meter diameter, later named Bryantsev. Here are the salt mines of Soledar today, their history begins here.

After the production was set up, workers' settlements were broken up near the mine. Karla Liebknecht, Mesopotamia, Salt, Belokamenka, Deconsky. In 1965, they were combined in the Soviet Carlo-Liebknechtovsk. In 1991 it was renamed to the city of Soledar, whose salt mines are so popular in industry, tourism and medicine.

Salt Mines: Therapeutic Effect

The microclimate of the salt mine, located at a depth of 288 meters, is truly unique, because its walls are 98-99% NaCl. 1 m ^{3 of} air contains up to 15 mg of salt microparticles, the size of which varies within 1-5 microns. This compound has bactericidal properties, it counteracts the synthesis and development of microorganism cells in the respiratory tract, which, as a consequence, prevents inflammatory processes. Therefore salt mines of Soledar are health improvement in its pure form.

Beneficial effect on the condition and stable humidity of air 60%, atmospheric pressure 772 mm Hg.

The speleosanatorium "Salt Symphony"

Speaking about Soledar, salt mines, it is impossible not to say about its unique speleosanatorium, where there is no medicament therapy completely. The effectiveness of treatment is 85-95% in children and 70-85% in adults (with remission for 6-12 months).

Here you can recover, be rehabilitated, undergo a preventive course with such diseases and manifestations as:

• Bronchitis (obstructive and asthmatic, "smoker's bronchitis");
• bronchial asthma;
• Chronic pneumonia;
• Rhinitis and dermatitis allergic;
• Food and drug allergy;
• Weakened children's immunity;
• chronic fatigue.

The procedures that are included in the courseware (here only treatment without accommodation and meals is possible):

• Speleotherapy in the halls of the salt mine;
• massotherapy;
• Oxygen cocktails;
• breathing exercises;
• physiotherapy;
• Therapeutic fitness.

The salt mines had a noticeable effect on the name of Soledar. And for good reason - the history of this place is closely connected with a similar industry. However, most of all the city is famous for its amazing excursions to the amazing underground world, unique in the microclimate components of the speleosanatorium.