More Expensive Than Gold

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Greetings, world travelers!

What does that title say to you? What is your first thought when you read "More Expensive Than Gold"? Platinum? Diamonds? Technically, you'll be right but that isn't what I mean today.

Thee most of you know that in the past, the salt was indeed more expensive than gold. My visual traveler story today will bring you to one of those places, where salt was mined in the past. Now-a-days, this impressive place has been transformed into a recreational and medical facility.

I have to admit here, this is really the top breathtaking tourist destination I have visited so far in Romania. It is strange to me that it isn't very popular among the many other European travelers I have spoken to. Even some Romanians don't know it and this is a complete surprise to me. As you are going to see from my photos below, this place really looks if not extraterrestrial, at least extraordinary!

It's called Salina Turda.

Or simply the salt mine of Turda, a town in the Western part of Romania, in the famous region of Transylvania. I guess I don't have to tell here what it is famous with ;) As those legends are not part of my story today.

Now let me start with two of my favorite pictures I took there, deep underground:

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That first picture above is a long exposure photograph of the biggest "room".
The entrance to this site is, of course, not for free, but as far as I remember, the ticket wasn't expensive at all, just few EUR. I was very pleased to be allowed to use my tripod, after I asked the lady at the ticket desk.

So you may notice that in the left part of the image there is the blurred circle of a Ferris wheel :) Yes, this was one of the big underground attractions.

The second big attraction and the second big "room" is actually a lake! With boats to rent!

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Ops, once again, I did it. I didn't started with the photos in chronological order but I started with my favorite one :) Let me try to fix that "problem" now :)

Once we entered the salt mine, there are a long tunnel bringing us down:

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I really have no proper words to describe you how beautiful are the layers of different colors of salt, polished by the water and the human hands, extracting the salt:

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You will see those amazing, almost black and white curved layers in many of my photos today. It was interesting to see some of the old tools and equipment used to collect, process and transport the salt. Wooden tools, conserved by the salt and the humidity for the eternity:

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At the end of the tunnel and after the "museum" room, there is a waiting line for an elevator, bringing the people down to the large room. It was a bit scary here, seeing what we were walking on. Beams, stuck inside holes in the walls of salt :)

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I looked down and these were some of the views:

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It's probably something like a ten-story building, I would say. It felt quite weird. Underground heights? :)))

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Here you can see the stairway, for those who don't want to wait for the elevator. On our way back, we took the stares :) Also, you could see the amphitheater on the left-hand side and the ping-pong tables on the right-hand side.

Generally, the idea of the place from the medical perspective is to spend more time underground as the air here, saturated with salt and considering its purity and high humidity, cures a wide range of lung deceases and problems. There were special modern medical rooms for therapy in a separate room but they are available only to people with prescriptions.

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I loved the way the whole place is lighted. Under certain angles, it really looked like something out of this world... Do you agree with me?

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Once we got out of the elevator, I took few minutes to create another long-exposure of this beautiful device :) Everything around looks so magical between those beautiful layers of salt, doesn't it?

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What a ceiling! I guess this is another proof that Nature is THE best artist!

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From that level I could view the "bottom", lower room where the lake is. I have no idea who the designer and architect of the wooden "houses" is, but I deeply admire her/his work. It fits the place in a perfect way.

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WOW !!!

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Wow indeed! See the scale of this place, the yellow boats and people - those tiny dots around. I was impatient to go down and see all these wonders from a closer distance :)

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I loved how there were several, enough places for everyone to sit and have the time necessary to rest and enjoy the views. Yes, the more time spent, the better, for the health, that's the motto :)

Looking up, another huge WOW:

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That place was giving me huge shivers, in a good way.

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The few hours we have to see and feel this place passed like in an instant. We decided to use the stairway back up to the surface:

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How do I know this was the ultimate Romanian destination for me?

Well, I could write many things here but I'm gonna tell you only this one now. Whenever I meet someone from Romania, that is usually the first question I ask them:

"Have you been to Salina Turda?" :)



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Have a great day, stay safe, stay strong and let your muse be always on your shoulder!



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41 comments
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An unreal, unimaginable, magical place, like from a fairy tale.😊 I really like it! If I'm wandering around Transylvania, I'll stop by here for sure :) Great photos! Regards😃

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Hey :) I would love to see your story and photos from there :) It's totally worth the visit and the time. And the positive effect over the respiratory system too :))) Cheers!

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I'm really happy to see you visiting the salt mine from Turda. I've seen this around 7 years ago and I would repeat the experience anytime again.

I even had my bachelor's degree made based on this place, and it's really impressive what it hides down into the ground!

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Oh, thank you for stopping by and the kind words :)
I would love to see some new photos from this amazing place, I am sure there have been some changes ;)

Is there any other "wow" destination in Romania? My next plans include the delta of Danube, however covid postponed them.

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Any wow destinations? Haha! Way too many wow destinations in Romania! I live here and I still don't have enough time to see all of them.

I visited Danube Delta and a lot of other places from that region of Romania back in 2019 and I have another trip planned there in the next year. You can see my trip to Danube Delta here if you are curious 😊

https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@gabrielatravels/let-s-travel-together-160-delta-dunarii-danube-delta

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Wow. That place is insane. You're definitely right about nature being the best artist. Though your photos are amazing as well. I love the patterns in the walls and how smooth they look. They look like polish granite or marble or something. So cool. I'm surprised how few people know about that location. That's actually a good thing though. Such places are better with fewer people.

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Ah, thanks a lot, that was the comparison I've been looking for: "polished marble".

Now that you say "Such places are better with fewer people", I think there was a limit of the people inside and if there are a certain number of visitors, the newcomers have to wait. That may be due to security concerns, of course, as everything could happen so deep under the ground.

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Yeah that makes sense. I would prefer it that way personally. Its better than cramming everyone and the place being over crowded

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What is your first thought when you read "More Expensive Than Gold"?

BITCOIN! Fuck you Peter Schiff hah!

I've never been there, nor to Romania =/ I remember seeing this place in one of Gabs @gabrielatravels posts (I think). Isn't it weird that salt was one day used as currency? Well, until someone discovered where to obtain a fuck ton of salt and the rest is the first notions of inflation. Amazing place and photos.

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:) Thank you! Yes, Gabs wrote me about it and I'm looking forward to a new travel story here :)

Probably this could happen to Gold itself, once a cheaper way to "produce" it is discovered in the future (and eventually applied) :D By the way, what people call "alchemy" happens even now on a mass scale inside the fuel rods of the nuclear power plants, however that gold is highly radioactive. Not that everybody brings a dosimeter when purchasing gold bars :D

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More reason to use Bitcoin. I don't want radioactive Gold anywhere near me nonono

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Absolutely! I am more fond of PoS crypto, instead of PoW, to be honest :D But as Bitcoin is the backbone of all crypto, everyone should have some, I believe :) Cheers!

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I'd have answered the question to your title by saying vibranium😅

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wowww so really nice, such a unique structure 😃

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WOW, this looks amazing 🥰😍 And back in the days tulip bulps where more expensive then gold 😋

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WOW, this is truly amazing would love to see something like that we don't have anything like that in Australia :)

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I just heard recently there is a similar salt mine in Poland and I have to research and plan for it as I haven't been there yet :) Australia... I hope the time will allow me to explore it with my camera too, some day :) NZ is also on my dream list :D
Thank you :)

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That would be cool to see another salt mine they do look awesome. If your ever in Australia with your camera do let me know be a pleasure to catch up with you @lightcaptured but may not be for a while the way things are over here at the moment 👍

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Oh, thanks so much, I'll try to remember this :) Who knows... I hope sooner than expected! :) Yup, the things don't look promising right now.

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