Catedral de Sal de Zipaquira ...

... is an hours drive from Bogota in Colombia.

That's where my hubby is at the moment .. in Bogota ... on a business trip but whilst there he will be attending the wedding of our friend, Mr T to the love of his life, P - and I am soooo sad that I won't be there to share their very special day :( I have not met his bride-to-be but when he is with us, he always speaks of her with a twinkle in his eye ... he is such a romantic !!! She is lucky to have such a wonderful man in her life ... he always says that he is the lucky one .. to have found such a wonderful soulmate to share his life!

Soooo .. I thought it I would share this truely amazing place which my hubby was taken to by Mr T on one of his visits to Colombia .... it's a Cathedral built in the depth of a salt mine! I shall split it up into three posts .. one or two photos do not do it justice

Because my hubby is not here to explain each photograph (and I hadn't written underneath each one when they were loaded onto the computer - silly me!) .. I will post them in the order that he took them as he went down the tunnel ...

As the tunnel descends, 14 stations of the cross are passed en route to the Cathedral

A large stone-carved cross en route ..

and a cross carved out of a stone wall .. large enough for an adult to stand inside the bottom portion ..

This is a free-standing stone cross on a balcony area which overlooks the tunnel leading to the Cathedral ..

Info in brief - Years before the underground Church was constructed, miners had built a sanctuary. "In 1950 the construction of the Salt Cathedral had begun, which was inaugurated in 1954. However, as it was carved inside an active mine, structural problems and safety concerns led the authorities to shut down the sanctuary in 1990.

In 1991 the construction of a new Cathedral was undertaken 200ft below the older one. The new Cathedral was inaugurated in 1995." "It has no bishop and therefore no official status as a cathedral in Catholicism."

Watch this space ------ next post we go deeper down the tunnel and closer to the Cathedral !!!!