50°49′11″N 10°07′25″E / 50.819595°N 10.123605°E
Merkers Adventure Mines are a visitor attraction in Krayenberggemeinde in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany, owned and operated by K+S AG of Kassel. They lie near the village of Merkers.
The mines have a long history of salt extraction, and hold the record for concealing large amounts of Nazi gold during World War II. A hundred tons of gold and many works of art presumed to be stolen were discovered by the liberating United States Army in 1945.
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Erlebnisbergwerk Merkers
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Erlebnis Bergwerk / Mines de sels à Merkers-Kieselbach 3D (Sony TD10E)
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Kristallgrotte im Erlebnis Bergwerk Merkers, ein besonders faszinierter Anblick
Transcription
Context
The Merkers Mine drops 860m below the surface into the 'Werra-Revier' band of potash bearing salt. There, at a constant temperature of 28C, are 4600 kilometers of tunnels.[1] Visitors are lowered in the hoisting cage at over 10m/ sec (30 km/h) down to the 500m galleries. There they are driven on 20-kilometre long tour of the mine, seeing an underground mining museum, a room where in 1945 the 'Gold und Devisenreserven der Deutschen Reichbank' dubbed the Nazi gold was stored, the world's largest underground bucket-wheel excavator, simulated blasting and a laser show in the world's largest underground concert hall.[2] Also, in 1980 a crystal grotto was discovered. Here visitors see enormous salt crystals, some over 1 m in size.[3]
Popular culture
The salt crystals of Merkers Mine are featured in Episode 2 of the BBC series, The Code.[4]
Documents stolen (fictionally) from the Nazi hoard in the mine form the basis for the plot of the Len Deighton novel XPD.
Gallery
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Manet's Wintergarden in safe keeping in 1945 -
The Gold Room today -
The "concert hall" -
Salt crystals in the 1980 Crystal Grotto
References
- ^ "4600 Kilometer unter der Erde". Gießener Anzeiger. 2011-02-03. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012.
- ^ Thuringia Tourism
- ^ Erlebnisbergwerk
- ^ "BBC The Code (2011)". Retrieved 26 May 2019.
External links
- Webseite zur 700-Jahr-Feier des Ortes Merkers mit geschichtlichen Informationen
- Erlebnisbergwerk Merkers Slideshow.
- Kristallsalzschlotte im Erlebnis Bergwerk Merkers, Geotopbeschreibung der Thüringer Landesanstalt für Umwelt und Geologie (TLUG)
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This page was last edited on 15 January 2024, at 17:02