Khewra Salt Mine
— — a pink city carved into the dark.
Not only on a wall.
“The second-largest salt mine in the world, cut into the Salt Range hills of northern Punjab, about a hundred and sixty kilometres south of Islamabad. Khewra has been worked since the thirteenth century and is the principal source of the pale pink rock salt sold worldwide as Himalayan salt. Inside, the air stays cool and the tunnel walls glow rose, amber, and bone. A small mosque built of carved salt brick sits in one of the chambers, lit from within. — from the studio
Khewra Salt Mine, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Khewra Salt Mine sits in the Salt Range hills of Jhelum District in northern Punjab, about a hundred and sixty kilometres south of Islamabad and roughly thirty kilometres from the city of Pind Dadan Khan. By output and reserves it is the second-largest salt mine in the world and the oldest in South Asia. The mine has eleven working levels, of which seven lie below ground, and an internal network of tunnels that totals about forty kilometres. Annual production runs above three hundred thousand tonnes.
The rose, amber, and bone tones of the rock come from trace minerals, principally iron oxide, within ancient halite deposits laid down when this part of South Asia was a shallow inland sea more than six hundred million years ago. Cut into bricks and lit from behind, the salt glows from within. Inside the mine, the Badshahi Mosque chamber is built entirely of carved salt brick of four colours and sits in a vaulted hall lit by hidden lamps. The mineral mix is the source of the global trade name Himalayan pink salt.
The mine is open to visitors year-round and is one of Punjab's most-visited heritage sites. A short electric tourist train carries guests in along the main haulage tunnel from the entrance to the underground chambers, where the salt mosque, the salt-brick replica of the Great Wall of China, and a saline lake sit on the tour route. Inside temperatures stay around 18 to 20 degrees Celsius regardless of the season outside. The mine is reached by road or by rail to Khewra station on the Pakistan Railways branch from Malakwal.