Have you ever visited a salt mine? When you travel to Poland with Trafalgar, we will take you to the 800-year-old Wieliczka Salt Mine, one of the world's oldest. It's known as the Underneath Salt Cathedral of Poland, and when you go 135 metres (440 feet) underground with your guide, you'll witness chambers, sculptures, salt chandeliers, and an entire church sculpted from rock salt. The UNESCO World Heritage Site has been producing salt continuously since the 13th century until 2007, and the history and unique carvings of this salt mine will leave you speechless.

Since you were a child, you've probably heard the phrase "candy will rot your teeth." However, there are many foods that are worse for your dental hygiene than candy, such as crackers. This is because acid, not sugar, is the leading cause of tooth decay.

Have you ever thought how many languages are there in the world. There are 2,700 languages, however most widely read spoken languages are English, Chinese, Spanish and Hindi. Chinese is the most spoken language with over 50,000 characters. Interesting, right??

Uzbekistan is home to the world's largest open-pit gold mine, which is located near Muruntau in the Qizilqum or Kyzyl Kum deserts. The mine produces around 2 million ounces of gold each year, and the pit measures 2.17 miles by 1.55 miles at a depth of 1,837 feet. The gold reserves in the Muruntau area, including those in the process of production, are estimated to be over 170 million ounces of gold. The gold was discovered in the area for the first time in 1958. Originally, the area was a source of turquoise throughout the Silk Road period. However, the region was not substantially studied until the 1950s. Commercial mining began in 1967 and has continued ever since.

Francesco Illy, the founder of the Italian coffee roasting company, was actually born in TimiÈ™oara, Romania. He later moved to Vienna, and then the Italian city of Trieste. He didn’t make a 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Romanians, however, which was topped by Stephen the Great and featured the likes of Nadia Comăneci and Gheorghe Hagi.

Chocolate bars were not the first chocolate treat, but hot chocolate was. And that hot chocolate was nothing like we get today. It was just a bitter concoction that was often enjoyed during weddings and other occasions. Isn't this interesting?.

During International War I, Europe was at war, and world powers like Britain were organizing their armies. By 1917, one renowned British admiral of the Royal Navy had retired and wrote to Winston Churchill to express his thoughts on the day's headlines, some of which were so thrilling that he wrote, "O.M.G. (Oh! My! God!)." How could he have realized that the acronym he created would go on to become one of the world's most-used phrases?

While historians have only lately recognized their accomplishments (or female discoveries attributed to males), female mathematicians engaged in a World War II program coding instructions into the groundbreaking Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.

Have you ever considered where oxygen originates from? Your initial idea would be a rainforest, yet sea organisms are drawn in. Over half of the world’s oxygen is produced by plankton, seaweed, and other photosynthesizes.

On January 28, 1887, two years before Montana became a state, U.S. Army troops observed an unusual sight: a frisbee-sized snowflake descending from the sky near what is now Keogh, Montana. Snowflakes can occasionally clump together before hitting the ground, resulting in enormous, thick snowflakes. It is still the Guinness World Record holder for the biggest snowflake ever.

The Terracotta Army was discovered by chance by local farmers digging a well in 1974 in Xi'an after remaining underground for more than 2,200 years. This discovery prompted Chinese archaeologists to investigate, resulting in the discovery of China's largest archaeological site.

Japan is well-known for its non-stop festivals, but Hadaka Matsuri must be one of the most bizarre. Thousands of Japanese men strip naked in public to secure a fortune-filled year, with the biggest matsuri taking place in Okayama, where an estimated 9,000 men get down to their fundoshi.

Kokura, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Niigata, and Kyoto were on the list. Kyoto was spared, according to legend, because US Secretary of War Henry Stimson loved the ancient Japanese capital and had spent his honeymoon there decades before. In its place, Nagasaki was established. On July 25, 1945, the United Kingdom approved the bombing of four Japanese cities: Kokura, Niigata, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

Everyone knows Lake Superior is vast (it's not called one of the Great Lakes for nothing), but few people realise precisely how big it is. Lake Superior is not only the world's biggest freshwater lake, but it also carries three quadrillion gallons of water. That's enough liquid to submerge North and South America under a foot of water. It's no surprise that Lake Superior has seen so many shipwrecks.

William "Willy" Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's half-brother, was born in Liverpool to a British mother and a German father. Willy wrote an essay in Look magazine titled "Why I Hate My Uncle" when Anglo-German ties began to deteriorate as a result of his uncle's flamboyance. As the war broke out, he relocated his family to the United States, where he attempted to enroll in the United States Navy but was denied. After the Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt reconsidered Willy's application and ultimately authorized him to fight the Nazis.

Though pig includes some sodium naturally (as does all meat), the saltiness we appreciate in ham, bacon, and a variety of other pork products is really the result of curing and brining procedures. After soaking in salt or salt water, fresh meat gets dehydrated, seasoned, and preserved. This is also the method used to make salami, pepperoni, and other cured meats.

Apple's initial iPod included a small Easter egg. This game could only be accessible if you knew the correct sequence of buttons to press. "Go to the 'Around' menu and hold down the center button for about three seconds to play a Breakout (Pong) game while you listen." Breakout, the hidden game, is significant in Apple's history since it was a product on which both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak collaborated at Atari.

You probably don’t know this, but the calendar that we use today was invented by ancient Egyptians. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the first calendar known to humankind was invented in Egypt. In fact, it is the year 6264 in the Egyptian calendar.

The ancient Egyptians used the 12-month calendar like we do today. However, each month was always 30 days which meant that their years were only 360 days in total causing the years to fall out of sync with the seasons. So to make up for the lost time, they held a 5-day festival at the end of each year.

Uzbekistan is the world's 56th biggest sovereign state, with an area of around 172,700 square miles, and is almost the same size in geographical area as Spain or the state of California in the United States. The length of the nation from east to west is 885 miles, while the length from south to north is 580 miles.

We all know Kim Ju Meok’s love for the drama, Stairway to Heaven, transcends the 38th parallel. What you may not know is that the beanie Ju Meok wears is a replica of the one that actually appeared in Stairway to Heaven. Actor Kwon Sang Woo, the star of Stairway to Heaven, wears the same red beanie in his drama. Even the bunny detail is on point.Ju Meok even pulls down his beanie the same way actor Kwon Sang Woo did in his past work, Sad Love Story.

To begin, rinse your piala (small tea bowl) with a drop of hot tea, then return a bowlful to the kettle three times before the tea is regarded safe to drink. It's definitely a one-of-a-kind afternoon tea! Traditional local desserts are frequently provided alongside.

From 1935 through 2018, the Los Pinos presidential palace served as the official residence of Mexico's presidents and was off-limits to anyone who were not officially invited. This changed in 2018, when Andres Manuel López Obrador was elected President of Mexico, campaigning on pledges to eradicate corruption. As a gesture of goodwill, he elected to live in a humble apartment in Mexico City's central sector rather than the palace. To give you a sense of what the Mexican president sacrificed, the presidential mansion is 56,000 square feet in size.

According to scientists, all of the pyramids were erected between the 26th and 23rd centuries BC. Mammoths first arose approximately 1.6 million years ago and were extinct in the 10th century BC. This indicates that when Cheops was ecstatic about a new pyramid named after him, enormous beasts were terrorizing our forefather's thousands of kilometers distant.

Honey is very low in moisture and very acidic in its natural state, which are two primary defences against food spoilage. According to the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California, bacteria will die almost immediately in a low-moisture, high-acid environment such as a sealed jar.