If you find yourself in Bogotá and need to escape the hustle and bustle of the city streets, then a day trip out to the Salt Cathedral in the Zipaquira Salt park could be just the tonic. The town lies just 50km north of Bogotá and the easiest way to get there is on the Tren Touristico de La Sabana and it means you can take in the views of the Colombian Andes on the way.
The salt deposits were created 250 million years ago when the Andes began to rise up and is believed to have been mine for the last 2500 years.
The salt theme park covers an area of 32 hectares and contains the old and new cathedral as well as art, geology displays and educational exhibitions that highlight environmentally friendly mining and sustainable development techniques.
The old cathedral, which was originally just a shrine for the miners to take their daily prayers in but evolved to become an immense cathedral capable of housing 8,000 people for a service and has a length of 120m flanked by 6 enourmous columns of salt. The new cathedral is located 200 feet below the old one and it is the product of an architectural competition launched in the early 90's and construction began shortly after. The site truly has to be seen to be believed and will stagger any visitor with it's scope and scale.
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