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[Tobi]

Yesterday we made an excursion with the 8th grade classes of our school to Merkers, a village in the border area of Hesse and Thuringia (exactly the middle of Germany) which is famous for having the largest salt mining area in the world - and a spectacular crystal cave. I'm really sorry that the pictures are shabby, but nevertheless i wanted to mention the trip. Who ever comes to the middle of Germany should visit this mining area, it is a thrilling experience to be deep underground in a room full of cubic metre halites ...

The visitor is guided down to a 800 meter level and to higher levels of 600 and 500 metres. One of the highlights is a spectacular cave of perfect and completely clear halite cubes, the largest of them measure 1,20 metres ... and they are hanging everywhere around you when you enter the cave :-)

And the visit is also interesting for some history lesson: At the end of World War II American forces discovered a giant treasure (money, gold, paintings) hidden by the Nazis. Dwight D. Eisenhower himself visited the mine as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to inspect what the Nazis had hidden there. It came out to be one of the largest spoils of war in history ... So this trip satisfied me twice - as a mineral enthusiast and as a history teacher ;-)

Because my photos are really poor, here's an interesting link from the German Giant Crystal Project where you can find additional infos and pictures:
https://giantcrystals.strahlen.org/europe/merkers.htm
(in English language)

[Herman van Dennebroek]

Hallo Martin

Your pictures are not so poor as you say. They gave a good personal impression from a interesting visit.
I hope that your students have picked up the historical and mineralogical inpartance of this mine.

Greetings,
Herman

[Tobi]

Hello Herman,

I hope so. But 8th graders often have other interests than mining and history ... Well, at least for us teachers it was a great experience ;-)

P.S. Tobias, not Martin - Martin is my last name ;-)

[Antonio Alcaide]

Hi, Tobias.

I agree with Herman. Nice shots and interesting link. Amazing halite cubes I did not know until now. And, as a teacher too -you know-, I understand the difficulties with the students perfectly.

Cheers

[str4hler]

Cool place isn't it? ;-)
Glad you enjoyed it too!
Some more pictures here https://www.strahlen.org/vp/de/merkers/

Cheers! Frank