Salt Cathedral

The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, chosen by national and foreign tourists as the "First Wonder of Colombia" in 2007. Last December 29th; it received the visitor number 584.132, of the year 2022; this way it surpassed the number of visitors that enter annually, since its inauguration in 1995, in spite of the effects caused by the pandemic. Built inside a salt dome, where the millenary extraction of a natural resource that has served as food, industrial, medicinal, economic, and mythological base, among others, now becomes the niche that houses in its belly a wonder of global stature; where the ingenuity of man, connected to the hand of God, molds the matter, and transforms it into a fantasy of divine inspiration. Impregnated with spirituality, set in everyday life, decanting the mission of earthly man, now printed on the salt rock with a language that is based on the handling of essential signs, mostly captured in abstract images - not figurative, which imprint the "place" with a deep sense of sacredness and reaffirm the spiritual substance that animates it. "The spatial conceptualization, its textures, shapes, dimensions and architectural structure, seek in this sense to respond to this specific significant and liturgical need." Architect Garavito Perla Roswell. "Cathedral of Salt, a Wonder in the Depth of Silence", is a written work that uses an eclectic language, seeking to raise awareness about our participation, implementation, and defense of human values, as the path to follow in the midst of such a convulsed world, where we all participate in the construction of a more just society, while emphasizing the sensitivity that the architect transmits through his work, where all the world's religions have a place. This work collects feelings and expressions of amazement on the part of visitors, which for decades I have managed to compile, together with the data collected from the research carried out as a tourism professional, and the experiences derived from the exercise of Tourist Guidance, whether as an official Guide of the Cathedral or independent; through the topics of reflection that I propose here, I want from my space to make a contribution to the construction of a better world, where the human being is prioritized over all types of interest and the planet as the house that we all together must preserve.