Latest Issue

2025 Vol.134 No.5

Salt Pans on Gozo Island, Malta

Salt pans have been hewn into limestone shore platforms on the Maltese Islands, which are located in the central Mediterranean Sea. Taking advantage of a typical Mediterranean climate with its hot, dry summers, salt has traditionally been produced through solar evaporation since the Roman era (Gauci et al., 2017). This pale yellow, fine-grained limestone, which is rich in foraminiferal microfossils (particularly Globigerina), was deposited on the outer shelf of the African Plate during the Miocene (ca. 23—20 Ma). Because of its softness and ease of carving, seawater reservoirs with salt extracting pans salt drying platforms, of different depths and sizes, were created in the salt pans. The limestone was not only widely used as a building material in the Megalithic Temples of Malta (ca. 3600—2800 BC) and the fortified city of Valletta (16th century), but was also exported to Italy, Greece, and Libya. Known as Globigerina Limestone, it is recognized as a Global Heritage Stone Resource by IUGS (Cassar et al., 2017).

(Photograph & Explanation: Ryo IIZUKA; Photographed on August 16, 2022)

References

Cassar, J., Torpiano, A., Zammit, T. and Micallef, A. (2017): Proposal for the nomination of Lower Globigerina Limestone of the Maltese Islands as a “Global Heritage Stone Resource”. Episodes, 40, 221-231.

Gauci, R., Schembri, J.A. and Inkpen, R. (2017): Traditional use of shore platforms: A study of the artisanal management of salinas on the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean). SAGE Open, April—June 2017, 1-16.