It was raining and we didn’t choose a accommodation place for night. However we had one more attractio to visit. It was Neolithic mines of striped flint in Krzemionki.
But first, we’re going to Ostrowiec for dinner, maybe weather will settle down. Unfortunately, none of this – it rains all the time. It is said it is difficult, you have to be hard. We’re going in the direction of Bałtów. Along the way, we turned from the main road to the Nature Reserve “Krzemionki Opatowskie.”
On-site greets us practically empty parking lot. In the center, the building also was empty. It looks a little strange, because that place is taking online reservations. Maybe we didn’t hit the peak of the season. We had companion of one family only, so we went exploring together.
We went into the woods with our tour guide, where he begins tour of ground facilities. The tourist route runs along wooden bridges built over the excavations of Neolithic mines. We passed heaps of mining and cavities glided on the surface of the earth.
We came to the building in the middle of 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 descend into the earth with a guide. There, we see well-preserved excavations of prehistoric flint mines. In the tunnel they are set effigies of ancient miners. After passing 500 meters underground we come out to the surface. In the deepest part of the route it was depth of 11.5 meters. A total tourist route in Krzemionki counts approx. 1.5 km long.
After leaving the underground we had to walk a few hundred meters to the parking lot. On the way we passed the reconstruction of prehistoric settlement. This four buildings were modeled on those in which was used by people lived in the Stone Age and the early Bronze Age. You can enter the huts to see how they were equipped and with what they built everything. The village is surrounded by a palisade and ditch defense.
According to the website they are organized archaeological workshops for children and youth, as well as perform demonstrations of pottery, in which you can participate. Probably it would have been a completely different perception of this place if we found the buses of children and crowds of visitors.
If you are interested in geological history issues a visit to this place is recommended. The underground tourist route in Krzemionki is the only one of its kind in the world open to the public. For us the visiting this place was “random” and we know that it does not pull us super. Maybe a little is because of your guide who was not too talkative, and all the answers to the questions he gave was very short and the way of showing us surroundings of the mine he seemed as if he did it as a punishment.
We invite you to watch movie of our visit there: