On one of Gozo’s long summer evenings, enjoy a walk from Xwejni to Wied il-Ghasri, where along the way you will be able to see scores of salt pans that have been dug out of the soft limestone and used for harvesting sea salt as part of a centuries-old Gozitan tradition

Before summer starts the salt pans are filled with sea water to be evaporated by the hot sun leaving behind the crystalline salt to be collected and eventually sold.

These salt pans, date back 350 years, some believe that they have been in use even longer, since Roman times.

The production of sea salt has been passed down through the same families, who have kept up the tradition for many generations. Members of these families work through hot summer days scraping up the salt crystals to be stored and processed in the caves that have been carved into the coastal rock in the cliffs behind them.

Photographs by Alain Salvary.

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