Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Pastel de nata
Portugal • 8 days, 7 nights
Portugal: A Culinary Adventure from Porto to Lisbon
from
Italy • 9 days, 8 nights
Flavors of Italy: Roman Carbonara, Florentine Steak & Venetian Cocktails
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The wall commemorating 11,908 Jewish victims of the Shoah from Frankfurt.
Börneplatz Memorial
Entrance to the munitions area of the lower part of the bunker
Simserhof
Carlos Calderón Yruegas calls the villa his personal playground.
Villa Tabaiba
Apples and pears, Spitalfields Market.
Brick Lane Roundels
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The sign declares this the number-one gumbo shop in town.
Gumbo Hut Shioya
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
The exterior of the Hall of Records.
Atlas Obscura Mailbag: Urban Exploration, Illegal Carvings, and Repeat Vacations
Biosphere 2 campus (2016)
Biosphere 2: How Volunteers Survived for 2 Years in an Airtight Habitat
Places like Forest Grove linger on the edge of wilderness and civilization.
Listening for Echoes of the Forest Grove Sound
Longwood House, where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years.
The Longwood House: Napoleon Bonaparte’s Beautiful Prison

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Iran Zanjān Salt Men of Iran

Salt Men of Iran

Salt cured mummies continue to turn up in this Iranian mine.

Zanjān, Iran

Added By
Dylan Thuras
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
  Ensie & Matthias / CC BY-SA 2.0
  Hugues Desponts
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

While bulldozing salt from the Chehrabad Salt Mine, Iranian miners recently uncovered the sixth "salt man" to be found in the last fifteen years. These "salt men" are in fact ancient corpses killed or crushed in the cave and mummified by the extreme conditions. Hair, flesh and bone are all preserved by the dry salinity of the cave, and even internal organs such as stomachs and colons have been found intact.

The first salt mummy, dated to 300 A.D., was discovered in 1993, sporting a long white beard, iron knives and a single gold earring. In 2004 another mummy was discovered only 50 feet away, followed by another in 2005 and a "teenage" boy mummy later that year. The oldest of the salt men found is truly ancient and has been carbon dated to 9550 B.C.

Stanford University's folklorist Adrienne Mayor thinks there may be another layer to the already intriguing story of the salt men. She thinks the remains may explain the story that Emperor Constantine viewed a mummified satyr. "Obviously satyrs are mythic creatures," Mayor said, but pointed out that the heads of the humans who had been preserved in the salt bear "a striking resemblance to ancient Greek and Roman depictions of satyrs in vase paintings."

Classical images of satyrs are indeed similar looking, with similar hair and beards, snub noses and protruding jaws. "I think it's very likely that an ancient discovery of a similarly preserved 'salt man' in northwestern Iran is the basis for St. Jerome's account of the 'satyr' preserved in salt and examined by the Emperor Constantine and numerous other curious visitors in Antioch," Mayor writes.

While four salt men have been transferred to the Zanjan Archaeology Museum and one to the National Museum of Iran in Tehran (all can be seen by the public), the final salt man remains in-situ, half stuck in a mountain of salt. As of 2008, Iran's Ministry of Industries and Mines canceled the mining permit for the Chehrabad Salt Mine and declared the site an archeological research center so more work could be done to look for and preserve other salt men.

With the recent unrest in Iran, the fate of the salt men remains uncertain.

Related Tags

Wonders Of Salt Caves Mummies Ecosystems

Community Contributors

Added By

Dylan

Edited By

Mike Portanova, mayor, Michelle Cassidy

  • Mike Portanova
  • mayor
  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

February 11, 2009

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Salt Men of Iran
Salt Mine
Zanjān
Iran
36.658945, 48.429108
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Dashkasan Dragon Temple

Viyar, Iran

miles away

Masuleh

Masuleh, Iran

miles away

Ali Sadr Cave

Ali Sadr, Iran

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Iran

Iran

Middle East

Places 52
Stories 17

Nearby Places

Dashkasan Dragon Temple

Viyar, Iran

miles away

Masuleh

Masuleh, Iran

miles away

Ali Sadr Cave

Ali Sadr, Iran

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Iran

Iran

Middle East

Places 52
Stories 17

Related Stories and Lists

Wonders of Salt

List

By Meg Neal

Related Places

  • Flensburg, Germany

    Mumiengrotte (Mummy's Cave)

    Located in the middle of public park, this cave built in the early 19th century houses an ancient stone sarcophagus.

  • Entrance to Colossal Cave.

    Vail, Arizona

    Colossal Cave

    Legend says train robbers stashed their gold within the depths of this unusual cave.

  • Praid, Romania

    Salina Praid

    Gigantic Romanian salt mines used to heal respiratory conditions.

  • Kenya

    Kitum Cave

    A salty cave excavated by elephants and the location of a deadly disease vector.

  • Namakdan Salt Cave

    Qeshm, Iran

    Namakdan Salt Cave

    One of the world's largest salt caves is filled with fragile salt sculptures, salt rivers, and huge salt megadomes.

  • Coqueza mummy.

    Coqueza Canton, Bolivia

    Coqueza Mummies (Cementerio de Chullpas)

    Halfway up a volcano at the edge of the world’s largest salt flats is a cave with seven mummies.

  • Al Hoota Cave

    Al Hamra, Oman

    Al Hoota Cave

    The biggest cave system in the Arabian Peninsula is home to a rare variety of blind fish.

  • Cape Flattery

    Neah Bay, Washington

    Cape Flattery

    At the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States lies a trail leading through an ancient forest to stunning cliff-side vistas and massive oceanside caves.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.