Salt Pans - Salini tal-Melħ

Salt is one of the ancient commodities such that it brought prosperity to places where it was available. It was deemed to be so important that Roman legionaries were given part of their wages in salt, resulting in a word we still use to this day: salārium or salary.

The origins of salt production around the Maltese Islands are unknown, which leads one to assume that the production of this primary good from a renewable source has been established from well before the formalisation of its production by the Knights. The name of the locality of Mellieħa comes from the salt pans originally extant in the vicinity of Għadira which are denoted as saline vecchie (old salt pans) in maps produced during the time of the Knights in Malta. Gian Franġisk Abela refer to them as primitive pans in his 1647 publication and from the description it appears they were located more or less where the bird sanctuary is today. One of the fresco paintings of the Great siege by Perez d'Aleccio in the Grandmaster's Palace shows both the Għadira pans and those at Naxxar. The latter are denoted as Le Saline Nove (nuove or new) while Għadir Bay is shown as P. Delle Saline V[ecchie].

The site of the old salt pans with Mellieħa in the background

The most well known salt pans are probably those after which the area between Naxxar and St. Paul's Bay is named; Salina. They are definitely the most industrialised and formalised salt pans on the Islands owing to their being a feat of engineering which makes the best use of natural elements to reduce as much as possible the human toil involved in this endeavour. These salt pans were constructed by the Knights and consisted of 33 pans, 10 of which were used for salt production while the rest were warming pans used for the natural heating of the sea water in order to accelerate salt production. The pans were interconnected by water channels and sluice gates which were used for the transferring of the warmed up water to the pans were the salt would form. In some cases, an Archimedean screw or manually operated pump was used to transfer the water from the pans to the channels. The salt was stored in three large sheds which have since been replaced by new structures which resemble the original in size and orientation only as their design, colouring and use nowadays is completely different. The Xiemenes Redoubt across the coast rod from the salt pans was originally constructed as a storage for salt but was later converted into  fortification. Unfortunately very few images of the original sheds exist. The carts which ran on railway tracks have also been removed or covered over. Recently, sat production has started again in these salt pans, a part of the EU project through which the area was restored and converted into a family park and visitor centre. For more information you can visit the Salina Nature Reserve page. During the winter months, particularly during bird migration, the salt pans double as a feeding and resting ground for migratory water birds. You may see a stone cross in the salt pans, which looks somewhat out of place, albeit photogenic. This cross was built to show the boundary between the old Naxxar and Mellieħa parishes. 

Salt production in Malta traditionally took place in the dry period or from May until mid August/September, depending on the weather. The process of salt production consists of filing up large pans directly from the sea which are used for warming the water which is then transferred to the smaller pans used for salt production. Collection of salt usually commences in late May until the first rain which usually happens in late August or September. The other set of salt pans which are still in use are the ones at Xwejni in Gozo. These are the largest group of salt pans on the islands and span a length of a kilometre, although nowadays, only a small section is used for salt production. Again, a Facebook page entitled Xwejni Salt Pans Leli tal-Melħ provides information on the process, pictures, videos as having a shop from where local sea salt can be purchased. 

Another set of salt pans which have an interesting story are the ones know as Tal-Arluġġar (watchmaker) in Gozo. These are a short distance away from the ones at Xwejni but they are located on  a high promontory 12 metres above sea level, well out of reach for the manual labour required for filling the pans from the sea. The intrepid watchmaker discovered that the promontory was overlying a cave and thus he hired labourers to form the pans, a reservoir and a shaft in the roof of the cave leading down to sea level from where the pans could be filled. Once these were constructed, the reservoir was quickly filled and the rest of the pans could be easily filled up by means of sluice gates and gravity. The Watchmaker imaged that the hot sun would quickly evaporate the water leaving the salt deposits only to be collected. Unfortunately he did not realise that the rock was porous, resulting in the water sea water seeping away through the rock leading behind a thick muddy residue. This failure threw him in to a deep depression. During the following winter, a strong winter storm drove large waves into the cave beneath the reservoir resulting in the sea water being forced up the shaft and according to Jean Houël, 60 feet (18 metres) into the air. The spray was dispersed over the surrounding fields which resulted in the complete failure of crops over a wide area, quoted to be a mile all around. The subsequent action by the farmers against the watchmaker was the last straw for the watchmaker who died before the claim for compensation could be settled. The farmers proceeded to block off the shaft to stop a repeat of this waterspout. The salt pans, as well as marked out but incomplete salt pans can still be seen in the area between Wied il-Għasri and Xwejni. The shaft is still visible to divers going into Cathedral Cave and swimming in to the far end of the cave, although it is blocked off by large stone slabs. 

Jean Houël's engraving showing the waterspout.

 

The shaft seen from inside Cathedral cave.

Apart from these two sites, there are numerous other areas which were used for salt production.  It is stated in the 1951 publication Salt Pans in Malta by E.V. Clarke that from the salt pans at Burmarrad (nowadays forming part of St. Paul's Bay), Mellieħa and Marsaxlokk a total of 10,773,000 kilograms of salt were produced around 1840. The map below shows the localities of salt pans around the coast of Malta and Gozo. 

The map below provides the complete locations of surviving salt pans around the Maltese Islands.