Neolithic mines of striped flint in Krzemionki

It was raining and we hadn't chosen accommodation for the night. However, we had one more attraction to visit. It was the Neolithic mines of striped flint in Krzemionki.

But first, we went to Ostrowiec for dinner, hoping the weather would settle down. Unfortunately, no luck - it rained the whole time. It was tough, but you have to push through. We drove towards Bałtów. Along the way, we turned from the main road to the Nature Reserve “Krzemionki Opatowskie.”

On site, a practically empty parking lot greeted us. In the visitor center, the building was also empty. It looked a little strange, because the place accepts online reservations. Maybe we didn't come during the peak season. We had the company of only one other family, so we went exploring together.

We went into the woods with our tour guide, where he began the tour of the surface facilities. The tourist route runs along wooden bridges built over the excavations of Neolithic mines. We passed mining heaps and cavities visible on the surface.

We came to a roofed building, inside which we found a reconstruction of an old mine shaft. There is also the start of the underground route. It was the most interesting part of the tourist route. We descended into the earth with a guide. There, we saw well-preserved excavations of prehistoric flint mines. In the tunnels, there are effigies of ancient miners. After passing 500 meters underground, we came out to the surface. The deepest part of the route reached a depth of 11.5 meters. The total tourist route in Krzemionki is approximately 1.5 km long.

Fun fact: striped flint was mined in Krzemionki from about 3900 to 1600 BC, mainly to make axes and chisels. More than 4,000 mine shafts are known here. On 6 July 2019, the Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as the first archaeological site in Poland.

After leaving the underground, we had to walk a few hundred meters to the parking lot. On the way, we passed the reconstruction of a prehistoric settlement. These four buildings were modeled on those used by people who lived in the Stone Age and the early Bronze Age. You can enter the huts to see how they were furnished and what they were built from. The village is surrounded by a palisade and a defensive ditch.
According to the website, they organize archaeological workshops for children and youth, as well as pottery demonstrations in which you can participate. This place would probably feel completely different if we had found busloads of children and crowds of visitors.

If you are interested in geological history, a visit to this place is recommended. The underground tourist route in Krzemionki is the only one of its kind in the world that is open to the public. For us, it was just an extra stop along the way, and now we know that it didn't appeal to us that much. Maybe partly because of the guide who was not too talkative, and all his answers to questions were very short and the way he showed us the mine's surroundings made it seem as if he was doing it as punishment.

We invite you to watch a video of our visit there: