Salt pans

The salt pans in Marsaskala are a distinctive and historic feature of the town’s seaside landscape on the southeastern coast of Malta. They form part of a network of shallow, square-edged pools carved directly into the coastal limestone along rock ledges, especially around Żonqor Point and stretching toward St. Thomas’ Bay.

These salt pans are traditional sea salt evaporation ponds—basically shallow rock reservoirs cut into the flat coastal rock. During high tide, seawater fills the pans. Then, under the Mediterranean sun and breeze, the water evaporates and leaves behind crystallised salt. This process is the same method used for centuries in Malta and across the Mediterranean for harvesting sea salt.