One of the strangest medical treatments happens hundreds of feet below Eastern Europe - and it's now available at Saks Fifth Avenue

Advertisement

You enter the cage, the door closes, and the elevator slowly takes you into the belly of the mine.

Advertisement

RTR4Q9HB

Vasily Fedosenko/REUTERS

Children and doctors descend into a salt mine near the town of Soligorsk, Belarus.

Miners dug hundreds, even thousands, of feet into the ground here, extracting one of humanity's most treasured minerals: salt.

They've since left the mine, having extracted its treasures, but they left behind an incredible patchwork of passages as tall as cathedrals.

As you drop lower into the dark, fresh air suddenly surrounds you. It smells ... clean.

Advertisement

Wellness centers in the US are racing to offer salt rooms, salt chambers, salt beds, and salt yoga to re-create the experience in these caves. One is now open at Saks Fifth Avenue.

But nothing beats the magic of the mines.