The Rammelsberg is the reason Goslar exists. Mining of silver, copper, lead, and zinc went on continuously from the tenth century until 1988 — more than a thousand years of unbroken extraction, longer than any other mine in the world. When the last shift came up the ore was already running out, but the workings, the surface buildings, and centuries of equipment were left intact and turned into a museum.
The site is huge. Three different underground tours run on most days: a walk through the medieval Roeder galleries with their water-driven pumps, a ride on the orange miners' train into the twentieth-century workings, and a longer descent through ore chutes and ventilation shafts. Above ground, the smelting house, ore-crushing mill, and miners' canteens are open as exhibition halls. Allow most of a day and bring a fleece — it is 12°C below ground year-round.