Relieve Asthma and Allergies in Eastern Anatolian Salt Caves

Yellow and brown mountains greeting you with all their magnificence and mystery, Iğdır welcomes you! Located on Türkiye's eastern border, Iğdır is home to a region of high plateaus and mountainous areas. Owing much to its geological structure and climatic qualities, the Iğdır Plain is particularly rich in agriculture, especially fruit and cotton.

A large part of Mount Ağrı (Mt. Ararat), Türkiye's highest mountain and the subject of legends, is located in Iğdır’s borders. The optimal season to pay a visit here is the spring, as it has a hot climate in the summer and a cold, chilly climate in the winter.

One of the most important reasons why travellers chose Iğdır is because of its salt caves. Tuzluca Salt Caves, Historical Babek Cave, Ahmeran Hill and Cave, and many other caves are accessible to visitors who are looking to have a wellness break in the Eastern Anatolia.

These famous caves are one of the province's most popular tourist attractions. Tuzluca District of Iğdır is home to these mesmerizing caves, which have many good features. Tuzluca gets its name from the salt mines that have existed here since at least the medieval period, and one of them is still used to extract salt. The amount of salt in the caves is sufficient to supply Türkiye's salt requirement for the next 100 years!

But salt extraction is not why travellers flock to Iğdır. The main reason why Iğdır is so popular among wellness travelers is halotherapy. Also known as salt therapy, halotherapy is essentially breathing in the air with tiny salt particles. This procedure helps improve breathing and it is considered as an alternative treatment for lung related health problems such as asthma and coughing.

It is known that the air in the passageways of the caves also help with some allergic conditions like eczema and dermatitis. Halotherapy is usually carried out in specifically designed salt rooms or natural caves. In the caves in Iğdır, there are a number of galleries that look like rooms, which are ideal for capturing unique images that cannot be found anywhere else!

The galleries, which are rather large, have a dazzling beauty to them, despite their intimidating appearance at first. The sedimentary strata that make up the rock salt layers in the salt cave date back 24 to 37 million years. It is thought that this place has been used since the Hittite period. Nowadays, the caverns produce around 150 tons of salt every day.

The halotherapy rooms, which are covered with salt by experts with the rock salt brought from the Tuzluca reserve in the city, will be a remedy for the problems of those suffering from respiratory ailments. Asthma sufferers can seek refuge at Tuzluca with peace in mind. Since the salt in Iğdır is totally natural and safe, it does not have any notable side effects.

Among its other benefits, halotherapy boosts your immune system. COVID-19-related respiratory issues can also be treated with halotherapy, which improves your breathing and the quantity of oxygen in your blood.

If you are a healhy life enthusiast looking to discover a new destination that can improve your health immensely, Iğdır deserves to be on your travel bucketlist. To learn more about Iğdır, visit the official Iğdır city guide here.