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26 LIFESTYLE WHITE GOLD AND ITS ECONOMIC INFLUENCE ON KRAKOW What do you know about salt? When you think about salt − without read- ing any further, what comes spontaneous- ly to mind? Certainly table salt. The gourmets amongst us think immediately of sea salt, then a few seconds later comes the softening salt for the dishwasher, and possibly also thawing salt for icy roads depending on the time of the year. As medical practitioners, you certainly know about smelling salts and anyone who is familiar with the practice of preserving meats and sausages knows about pickling salt. But do you know what salts are made of and that in their elemental form they are essential for our survival? Along with the primary components sodium and chloride, these salts also contain important minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potas- sium, iron, zinc, and other trace ele- ments. In earlier times salt was an im- portant commodity and was called “white gold”. It was not only a nutrient but was also used to preserve food and was also used in ancient medicine. It’s not something simply to flavor food. We shall spare you a digression about the composi- tion and vital properties of salts and refer you to Wikipedia. What is more interes- ting is the question of where salt actually comes from. Because salt was only found in a few re- gions, but was used everywhere, even in ancient times there was a brisk trade in salt that bound together different peoples and cultures. Long trade routes developed that were known as salt roads. Rock salt, which is extracted from salt mines, is the raw material for about 70 percent of table salt produced world- wide. The rest is harvested from sea salt. Rock salt is an evaporite and sedimen- tary rock that was produced naturally in the geological past by precipitation of concentrated sea water and survives in fossil form. It is made up exclusively of the mineral halite (sodium chloride, NaCl), and contains traces of potassium, calcium, bromine, iron, zinc, iodine, and magnesium and belongs to the halide group of minerals. The salt trade was a profitable business and many cities became wealthy thanks to salt. Many names of locations in Germa- ny refer to the earlier importance of the harvest-ing of rock salt (“Salz” in German) such as Salzdetfurth, Salzgitter, Salzbrunn, Salzuflen, and Salzburg as well as place names containing the stem “hall” from the German “vault” such as Halle, Bad Friedrichshall, Schwäbisch Hall, Hallstatt, and Hallein. In Europe there are extensive and deep salt deposits that were formed during the Per- mian north of the Central German Uplands in an area ranging from France across Germany and extending to Poland (the for- mer Zechstein Sea). In some areas the salt domes reach so high that they came into contact with the groundwater and formed salt springs. In the past, salt was harvested from those salt domes that were near the surface.