Every house in the city of Herringen in central Germany shows a white hill named Mount Kelly; it is the largest artificial mountain of salt in the world. Contrary to natural sources, It is a result of human efforts.
The mountain came to light in 1979 when the process of extracting potash salt from the surrounding mines began. Although potash was used to make soap and glass at that time, today artificial fertilizers, artificial rubber, and other medicines, etc. are made from the same potash salt.
Along with the process of extracting large amounts of potash, potassium chloride (salt) is also recovered here. This salt began to be collected a few miles away and now it has become a high mountain.
According to the locals, While extracting potash and other chemicals, a large number of salt also came out, which started being thrown away from here and this salt has become a salt mountain today.
This mountain has been called Mont Kelly i.e. ‘Mount of Kelly’. Here the word calli are derived from cancels which means potash.
In 2017, Mont Kelly was 530 meters high and its spread was up to 100 hectares. This mountain is visible from every area of the city even from the highways. It has now become a tourist hub and a series of guiding tours has begun. For some money, people can spend 15 minutes here and explore the city and the valley from the top of the salty hill.
It is believed to contain 236 million tons of salt, which is equivalent to 23,600 Eiffel Towers in weight. Every day 1000 tons of salt is added here per hour. That’s why Mount Kelly is getting higher and wider. But it has also caused huge environmental damage. Salt is flying to the sides and is also being absorbed into the ground.
The salt mountain is spreading to a natural forest and the number of invertebrates present there was 60 to 100, which has now been reduced to three.
The town of Heringen in central Germany is known for its large mountain-like pile of salt (sodium chloride), which is such a large deposit of salt, commonly known as table salt, That this area is now known as Monty Kali and it is the largest mountain of artificial salt in the world.
If its true reality is to be traced, it has to go back to 1976 when potash salts were extracted from the mines around the town of Hesson.
At that time potash was used to make various products such as soap and glass, but today it is also being used in the manufacture of various types of fertilizers, synthetic rubber, and medicines. Due to this the process of removing potash has increased significantly in the last few decades.
One problem with potash is that its mining produces sodium chloride as a byproduct, so it requires space to store it. The solution for the mining company here was to start collecting it in the town of Harlingen, a few miles away.
In this way, after many years of this process, now a large mountain of salt has arisen here and the local people call it Monty Kali or Kali Manjaro, which is used for potash in German.
