Khewra Salt Mine
Pakistan · Punjab · 290 m
Description
Khewra is the second largest salt mine in the world and probably the oldest still worked, cut into the Salt Range where the Punjab plain rises to the Potohar plateau. A narrow-gauge train carries visitors a kilometre and a half into the hill on the miners' own track. Inside, the galleries have been fitted out in carved salt brick, a mosque, a small replica of the Lahore Badshahi and a bridge over a brine pool, all of it lit from within the rock. A quarter of a million people come a year. The air is used to treat asthma. Legend has it that Alexander's horses found the salt by licking the rock.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 day
Travel season
Best time to visit: November – March
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Narrow-gauge train into the mine
- Mosque carved from salt brick
- Lit salt galleries and the brine pools
- Salt replica of the Badshahi Mosque
- Bridge over the underground pool
- Asthma clinic in the deep galleries
- Katas Raj Hindu temples in the Salt Range(Day trip)
- Pink salt lamps and blocks at the gate
- Salt Range hills above the mine mouth
Getting there
- Nearest airports:
- ISB