Much of the salt mining around the world is done above ground by flooding an area with seawater and then blocking the tidal water and allowing evaporation to take its course.  Wieliczka is an example of an underground salt mine – of which many occur in Europe and other areas of the world.  This salt mine has been in uninterrupted operation for over seven hundred years and is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.  This mine is a very deep cavern and has over 300 kilometers (almost 200 miles) of tunnels. The deepest part of the mine is at 327 meters – the length of three football fields. The entire catacomb was built by hand in digging the tunnels to the different chambers. Some of the different chambers have been made into chapels, complete with salt figures of famous people and religious figures and icons.   One of the largest rooms is the Kaplica S’w Kingi (Chapel of Saint Kinga).  Almost the entire chapel is made of salt, including the chandeliers, tile floors, and altarpieces.  Only two workers were involved in making the chapel and it took over 30 years and then moved over 20,000 tonnes (metric) to build this chapel.  There is still limited mining going on and our tour guide actually worked in the mine for over 35 years.