The Soledar Salt Mine, also known as the Artemsil Salt Mine, is a major salt mining complex located in the city of

Soledar Soledar (, ; , ; ) is a destroyed city in Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Situated in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the city was formerly highly important for its salt mining industry, from which its name Soledar is derived. The ...

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. During the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the mine was damaged, and is currently defunct. Along with the rest of Soledar, the mines were captured by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in the

battle of Soledar The battle of Soledar was a series of military engagements in and around the urban-type settlement of Soledar during the Battle of Donbas (2022), battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces began an offensive on 3 August ...

Overview

The scale of the mines is vast, with of tunnels at a depth of , and many of the chambers are in height. The largest resembles a

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

of about length and width and height, and has accommodated

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

matches and the inflation of a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...

. There are accommodation areas in the chambers and even a church. The

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

underground is constant at 14–15 °C, with 14.93 PSI

air pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The Standard atmosphere (unit), standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , whi ...

and 60%

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, dew, or fog t ...

regardless of the time of the year, giving rise to claims of healing properties for lung conditions.

History

The mining of

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

started in the town of

in the 19th century.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the

Battle of Soledar The battle of Soledar was a series of military engagements in and around the urban-type settlement of Soledar during the Battle of Donbas (2022), battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces began an offensive on 3 August ...

, on 10 January 2023, pro-Russian outlets, including Wagner Group leader

Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a ...

, claimed the mines were largely occupied by Russian and Wagner Forces, although these reports were not independently verified. After the claimed Russian capture of the whole city,

Denis Pushilin Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin (born 9 May 1981) is a Russian politician who has served as the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) since 2018. He has held the position in an acting capacity ever since the Russian annexation of the DPR in ...

, head of the Russian occupation administration of Donetsk Oblast, said during a visit to Soledar in late January 2023 that the salt mines remained damaged and difficult to descend into.

Tourism

Soledar's long history of mining has created an "underground city" of tunnels that

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

described as a "magnet for tourists". There are guided tours as deep as , with attractions including sculptures made of salt crystals. In 2004 and 2006, a cave was repurposed to host classical music concerts by the

Donetsk Symphony Orchestra The Symphony Orchestra of Donetsk Philharmonic Society is an orchestra based on Lenin Square in Donetsk, Ukraine. Notable members include but are not limited to * Roman Krasnovsky * Goran Bregović Goran Bregović ( sr-Cyrl, Горан Бр ...

underground. In September 2020, the same chamber was also used for a

(football) match. It was also host to the first-ever underground

flight, as listed in the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

. Since the early 1990s, the chambers have also contained "speleosanatoriums": rooms made of salt that attempt to "recreate the allegedly restorative conditions of salt mines", where 100 patients with respiratory diseases are treated. This practice is part of the controversial

halotherapy Halotherapy (also known as speleotherapy when practiced inside caves) is a form of alternative medicine which makes use of salt. Halotherapy is an unproven treatment that lacks scientific credibility. Spa owners attribute a wide range of heal ...

industry, in which it is believed that the inhalation of salt dust is a "miracle cure for respiratory illnesses".

Science

A particle physics detector, the , is located in the mine.

Gallery

File: Соляна симфонія.jpg, Entrance to Soledar salt mine File: Soledar salt mine (Sep 2020) 5.jpg, Soledar salt mine File: Soledar salt mine (Sep 2020) 7.jpg, Football pitch in Soledar salt mine File:The_cafe_in_the_"Concert_Hall".JPG, left, The underground "concert hall" in Soledar's mines File:Soledar salt mine (Sep 2020) 2.jpg, Sculptures from Salt File: Soledar salt mine (Sep 2020) 3.jpg , A sign in the salt mine File: Soledar salt mine (Sep 2020) 4.jpg, Inside Soledar salt mine File: The crest.JPG , Soledar crest in the salt mine

References

{{portal bar, Food Salt mines in Ukraine Show mines Soledar