New Delhi, India: May 13, 2008 – Released by Federation of God Believers – Alexander the Great discovered Salt Range of Pakistan.
After a few days, my father Lala Ushnak Rai Ji received some papers regarding some farmland,  situated in Jhelum District of Punjab in the then Undivided India, he got some ancestral property over there in the form of a large agriculture estate.

To my faint idea, the area was near Wahula and Dalwal, where some of our relatives were living. My two maternal uncles were living in Dalwal, where one uncle was a teacher there.

My father asked me to accompany him to the farmland in Jhelum district. We went up to Khewra by train, before reaching our destination, which was located on the other side of Khewra, we were first to crossover some hills by a bus. It was foothills of the Salt Range of Khewra Salt Mines, a huge spread area, perhaps the second largest salt mines in the world and the oldest in the sub continent.

It is about 160 kilometers from Islamabad and 260 kilometres from Lahore. I saw the people all around the Salt Mines, perhaps they were visitors and as per record, about 40,000 visitors come there to see God’s beauty in the form of Salt Mines or some might be coming over there to explore their commercial prospects in salt and medicinal business. This salt is also used in special medicines.

My father told me that salt has been mined there since 320 BC, in an underground area of around 110 sq km. and had an estimated 220 million tones of rock salt deposits. When we visited Khewra Salt Mines, the production was quite huge; presently it is around 325,000 tons salt per annum.

The mine-head buildings have 17 stories, with 11 below ground. The salt-mine extends around 2,400 feet inside the earth from the mine-mouth. There are 17 working levels and the cumulative length of all tunnels is more than 40 km.

Salt occurs in the form of an irregular dome like structure. There are seven thick salt seams with a cumulative thickness of about 150 meters. Mostly the salt is pure and its percentage at times touches 99%, quite transparent, white, pink, reddish to beef-color red in addition to beautiful alternate bands of red and white color salt.

My father told me a peculiar historical discovery of this range. He revealed to me that
when Alexander the Great came to this sub-continent, he came across the Jhelum and Mianwali region, and Khewra Salt Mines were incidentally discovered.

My father told me that the discovery of the mines was not made by Alexander or his associates or cronies but by his horses.

He explained: “It is said that when Alexander's army stopped there for a brief rest, the horses were attracted by stones scattered over there. All horses who came nearer to the stones, some started sucking them and some licking them, and one horse got a small piece of stone and put it in his mouth and started discharging foam from his mouth.”

“A soldier noted continuous foam running out of horse’s mouth ; he feared that the horse might have gone sick. He reported to the matter to his senior officers, who found out that the horse had put a small piece of salty stone in his mouth. They also discovered that other horses were also attracted by salt, hence discovery of  salty rocks and that’s how the matter came to the notice of Alexander the Greast and the credit of discovering Salt Range of Khewra was studded on his crown.”

My father told me that the mines were later on  purchased by a local Raja named as Raja Mal and the entire salt range became his property and went on passing to his heirs till India was partitioned and this area went to Pakistan.  These are also linked to the nearest place called Malot Fort created by Raja Mal.

I was moving by bus listening to my father, both of us were sitting together on a double seat. When the subject was over, I started thinking how salt deposit could be so in large quantity in these hills. I thought, “Was this area ever under the sea?” I contradicted my own view,  how could it be? The mine hills might be around 1000 feet above the sea level, hence there could no question of salt mines under the sea?” The sea could not rise to that level in any case and in any era, so some other mystery might be there, which I started thinking again.”

Actually the sale mines is 945 feet above the sea level and extends to 2,400 feet inside the earth from the mine-mouth.

Continued ….