Psychedelic Salt Mines

The Psychedelic Salt Mines is an abandoned salt mines with phenomenal colorful psychedelic swirl patterns, that has been naturally created. It lies more than 650 feet below the surface and images illustrate the surreal stripes that electrify the walls of the Yekaterinburg salt mine.

Walls, ceilings and floors are encompassed by mesmerizing layers of psychedelic patterns, ‘painted’ with natural layers of mineral carnallite, a mineral used in the process of plant fertilization, which normally is yellow, white or reddish, or even blue or colorless. The swirl rivers of color of the salt mine, dating back millions of years to when a salty sea dried up, leaving behind the mineral deposits.

In 2014, Mikhail Mishainik, a photographer, stumbled upon the incredible mines, and spent hours exploring the cavernous, dimly-lit labyrinths. He said, ‘The air is filled with small particles of salt and if we didn’t have our torches switched on it would be pitch black’. The long winding tunnels of the salt mines whose labyrinthine passageways stretch for miles, are closed and off-limits to the public and only accessible with a government permit.