Ses Salines salt flats, Ibiza · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Ibiza Salt Flats

Salinae Ebusitanae

SalinaHispania Tarraconensis · Ses Salines, Ibiza, Balearic Islands, SpainBuilt 600 BCE

About

Phoenician settlers first worked these salt flats on Ibiza's southern tip, and Rome kept the evaporation ponds running after making Ebusus a municipality under Vespasian in 70 CE. Ships from across the Mediterranean once queued to load salt harvested from these same pans, a trade that outlasted the empire itself by well over a thousand years. Flamingos now nest where Roman salt-rakers once worked.

What happened here

Shallow pans are cut into the flats behind a beach or a lagoon and filled at high tide through a gate. The water is walked through a sequence of pans, each shallower and saltier than the last, and the sun does the rest over the summer. In late season the crust is raked into ridges, left to drain, then carried off in baskets. The work is hot, glaring and hard on the feet, and it is done by contracted labour on a short season. Salt preserves fish and meat, cures hides and pays part of the state's revenue, so the pans are regulated and often leased from the state. A salina needs sun, wind and a tide, and it shuts down entirely when it rains.