It may be that some seek no gold but there live not a man that does not need salt.
According to Pliny, civilized life cannot proceed without salt. Homer called salt the Divine Substance.Plato called it ;Favorite thing of God.Salt had been used in religious and social rituals. In Abyssinia, Salt was presented to the guests to lick as gesture of hospitality. In the past in Europe salt was not touched with hands but was lifted on the tip of knife. To display their wealth rich people wanted to put it on the table. In Pyrenees, it was customary for bridal couple to go to churches with the salt in there pockets In Pyrenees it was customary for bridal couple to go to churches with salts in there pockets. To avert evil and to win divines, blessing children and made to lick salt at shrines in India. Because of its scarcity and frequent use, salt was paid as part of salary. In 1920 Diamond Crystal Salt Company published a pamphlet in which it counted 101 uses of salt. Large number of American & European cities were given names with reference to salt as Salt Lake City, Halle, Salzburg, Salt Cost, Hallein, Hallsladt.
In Latin the word sal means salt. In French it becomes sold and then assumed the shape of soldier. There are two sources to obtaining salt. Sea salt and the rock salt.
In Pakistan the main habituate of salt lies at Khewra. Khewra is located in District Jhelum in province of Punjab in Pakistan. The Khewra derives from khewa-wara where Khewa is a name of a man and wara means cattle farm. The place of resident of Khewra who had cattle farm was called as khewa-wara and then this converted into Khewra. Salt deposits left behind when a sea Tethys that extended over the Potohar Plato evaporated 800 millions years ago. Salt occurred in the form of an irregular dome. The mine has millions of metric tons of good quality salt.
Total length of salt mine is 120 Km and total manual labour involved in mining is 1485 out of which regular paid staff is 800 workers. The capacity of mine can be estimated from the fact that 60 lack persons can be accommodated easily in the mine. The salt found at Khewra salt mines is 99.90% pure, finest and in natural state. Salt is transparent, white, pink, reddish to beef colored. In certain horizons it is crystalline. Inside the mine there are beautiful alternate band of red and white color salt. The mine is cool in winter and warm in summer and so very comfortable in all seasons.
In Khewra mines there are 7 Thick salt seams with cumulative thickness of about 150 meters. There are 18 working levels and 50 feet of rock salt between each level. 11 levels are on top and 6 levels are underground. On 6th level there is a visit area. Very large chambers are made as a result of salt extraction. One of the chamber is call The Assembly Hall Height of the hall is 350 fit with 300 narrow stairs to reach the top.
The Janjua tribe is the first to initiate standard mining practices here in the 13th century. However when the Mughals emerged as supreme in the Punjab, they took over the mine from Janjua chief. After then the Punjab province came under the Sikhs and so were to be the Khewra Salt Mine.
The mining of Khewra mine are being made long before Alexender the great the invaded in the era 321 B.C. Mahmood of Ghazani in the early 11th century and Emperor Baber in the 16th century visited the salt mine. Alexender the great, during the battle with Raja Poros concealed his army in this mine.
In 1870 the British ousted the Sikhs and renamed the mine as the May Mine.The man who began mining work scientific lines first time was Dr.W.Wrath, a British Engineer. He worked there from 1872 to 1878. At the time of partition of India there was a jail at Khewra and prisoners were engaged to load the salt in railway wagons. It is said that in middle of 7th century A.D., the Kings of Kabul had their mints in Khewra.
There are several structure are made using salt blocks in the mine. the Badshahi Mosque that spared over 300 sq meters is one made with blocks of salt. It took fifty years for completion of its building. Another structure is Pull-e-Sarata salt bridge with no pillars to sport it. The other structures of pure transparent salt includes: the great Wall of China, the Mall Road of Murree, the Shimlla Pahare Lahore, Sheesh Mahal Lahore, Dewan-e-Muhabbat & Minar-I-Pakistan. A 100 feet long lake of saltish water Brine also exists in the mine. This mine is called Museum of Geology.
The annual production of Khewra salt mine is about 3 lac tons. There is still enough salt to last about 400 years to come in existing mine. The treasure of Khewra Salt Mines has valuable rocks as old as 600 million years of Precambrian age At present this mine is managed by Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation more then 55 thousand visitors visit the mine per year.
Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation is, now, going to setup a hospital for asthma patients in salt mine. There exists only one hospital of this kind in the world and that is situated in Poland. Allah, the All Mighty, has gifted the salt the quality that its atmosphere is cure for asthma patients. Millions of mankind will benefit form the establishment of this hospital.
Raja Fayyaz ul Hassan
Muhallah Makrach,
Khewra,
District Jhelum
PAKISTAN