Austria Hallstatt

The name Hall is most probably from the old Celtic name for salt, the salt mines near the village being an important factor. Salt was a valuable resource, so the region was historically very wealthy. It is possible to tour the world's first salt mine, located above downtown Hallstatt.Today, apart from salt production, which since 1595 is transported for 40 kilometers from Hallstatt to Ebensee via a brine pipeline, tourism plays a major factor in the town's economic life. Tourists are told that Hallstatt is the site of "the world's oldest pipeline"[1], which was constructed 400 years ago from 13,000 hollowed out trees.There is so little place for cemeteries that every ten years bones used to be exhumed and removed into an ossuary, to make room for new burials