{"id":1037,"date":"2013-04-22T15:39:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T11:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ankakh.am\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2013-04-22T15:39:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T11:39:25","slug":"inside-the-salt-mine-so-large-it-has-a-mosque-and-electric-railway-and-where-tourists-can-follow-in-footsteps-of-alexander-the-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=1037","title":{"rendered":"Inside the salt mine so large it has a mosque and electric railway and where tourists can follow in footsteps of Alexander the Great"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/m8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1029\" alt=\"m8\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/m8.jpg\" width=\"964\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/m8.jpg 964w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/m8-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/m8-486x300.jpg 486w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 964px) 100vw, 964px\" \/><\/a>The Khewra salt mine, the second largest in the world, is a warren of 40 kilometers of tunnels housing an illuminated mosque made from salt rock, an electric train and even an asthma clinic.<\/p>\n<p>The mine 100 miles south of Pakistan&#8217;s capital Islamabad is the largest and oldest salt mine in the country, drawing up to 250,000 visitors a year.<\/p>\n<p>Khewra was discovered back in 320 BC by Alexander the Great&#8217;s troops, but trading started in Mughal era in the sixteenth century.<\/p>\n<p>The main tunnel at ground level was developed during British rule by Dr. Warth, a mining engineer in 1872 and has been flourishing ever since.<\/p>\n<p>An electric railway has been working in the mine since the 1930s. It once hauled extracted salt from the mines, but now brings tourists in to marvel at the salt formations.<\/p>\n<p>The mine is still the largest source of salt in Pakistan with more than 350,000 tons produced per year, excavated at 18 different working levels.<\/p>\n<p>To keep the vast mine from collapsing, only fifty percent of the salt found is mined in the 110 square kilometre area.<\/p>\n<p>The cavernous tunnels have alternate bands of translucent, white and pink coloured salt.<\/p>\n<p>As well as the traditional mining, for the past three years there has also been an experimental asthma clinic at the mine, attracting patients from all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>Salt caves are seen by some as an alternative to drugs as asthma suffers can benefit from inhaling antibacterial salt particles to clear the lung passages.<\/p>\n<p>The largest mine in the world is the Sifto Canada salt mine in Ontario.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Khewra salt mine, the second largest in the world, is a warren of 40&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,155,137],"tags":[314],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other-countries","category-world","tag-pakistan","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}