The Rhine River Salt Company offers guided tours at the "Riburg" (train station Möhlin) as well as in Schweizerhalle.
Independently from these you might also want to visit the Salt Museum in Schweizerhalle.
When ?
Guided tours need to be arranged by telephone prior to the visit.
How much ?
Free of charge.
Duration ?
Guided tours in groups last approx. 2 hours. (Introductory film included).
Age ?
Children as from 10 years of age.
| Drilling derrick of the Rhine Salt Company in Schweizerhalle Photo source: Roland Zumbühl, Arlesheim |
| Enormous deposits of salt lie at a depth of 140 to 160 metres below the Rhine valley, the remains of an arm of the sea that covered the area 200 million years ago. Since the discovery of the seams a good 150 years ago, the Rhine salt mines have provided salt for the whole of Switzerland, except for the Vaud, where salt has been mined at Bex for centuries. A good quarter of a million tons is produced in the Rhine basin near Basel every year. The canton’s own association of Swiss Rhine salt producers will show you during a visit to its production facilities in Möhlin and Schweizerhalle how brine is won from the depths and converted to salt in the steaming plants. A film also shows how the salt came to be in the ground and what uses people put it to. In the Schweizerhalle salt works, you can also watch how the salt is packed lightning fast on the packaging line. The production of the salt itself has also changed from earlier days, when they still worked with wooden pumping houses that resemble today’s oil rigs. Also to be highly recommended is the exceptionally well designed and educational permanent exhibition of the history of the “white gold” and its production which the company established in 1998 in the former director.s house. The company is also willing, at the request of interested visitors, to open the house and its cellar, where the first ever borehole can be inspected. |
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