Salzwelten Hallstatt (Salt Mine)

The Hallstatt salt mine is the oldest known salt mine in the world, with continuous extraction recorded back to at least 5,000 BCE. The site sits on the Salzberg high above the village, reached by a steep funicular railway from a station next to the bus park.

The visit takes about ninety minutes and includes the funicular ride, a short walk along the open-air Skywalk with its panoramic platform over the lake, and then the mine tour itself. Visitors don miners' overalls and slide down two long wooden chutes (the longer is 64 metres) between the levels — exactly as miners did for centuries. The displays cover the Hallstatt Iron Age culture, the discovery of the Man in Salt, and a glass-floored chamber over the world's oldest preserved wooden staircase. Closed in winter; book online to skip the queues in high season.

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A story
In 1734 miners found a perfectly preserved body in the salt — a Bronze Age miner killed by a roof fall around 1,000 BCE, his clothing, hair, and tools still intact. He was reburied in the local cemetery on the assumption that he was a Christian; only later did archaeologists realise the dating. He is now called the Man in Salt and is one of the most important finds in European prehistory.

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