Although salt is abundant here on Earth, it still requires extraction from stone deposits or salty waters. The process of mining that salt can produce interesting landscapes, including deep, stable caverns, multicolored pools of water, and geometric carvings. Some of these locations have even become tourist destinations, serving as concert halls, museums, and health spas. Collected here are images of salt mines and evaporation ponds across the world, above and below ground.
The Strange Beauty of Salt Mines
Hints:
View this page full screen.
Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.
-
![]()
Read moreMulticolored walls of a salt mine located 1,380 feet (420 meters) underground, near the town of Soligorsk, south of Minsk, Belarus. Parts of this mine have been converted into a speleotherapy clinic for treatment of respiratory illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis. #
Sergey Mikhalenko / Shutterstock -
-
![]()
Read morePeople work with the salt piles in the evaporation zone of a salt lake in Gaotai County in northwest China's Gansu province, on October 31, 2018. This mine has a history dating back more than 2,000 years. #
Barcroft Media via Getty -
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of salt piles at sunset in Samut Sakhon province, Thailand #
Artit Fongfung / Shutterstock -
![]()
Read moreTerraces for salt production stand in the Salt Valley of Anana, near Alava, Spain, on July 17, 2015. The valley has natural brine springs that have been used by humans to produce salt since prehistory. #
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreNatural brine flows along a canal as salt covers the ground in the Salt Valley of Anana on July 17, 2015. #
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty -
![]()
Read moreA worker collects salt from terraces in Anana, Spain, on July 17, 2015. Anana produces in a traditional way, by natural evaporation, creating fleur de sel crystals. #
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty -
![]()
Read moreAn inside view of the Salina Turda salt mine on August 8, 2017. This former salt mine in Romania was operational for nearly a thousand years, now converted to a tourist destination and therapy center. #
DaLiu / Shutterstock -
-
![]()
Read moreA salt harvester takes his collection to a boat for transportation in Lake Retba, Senegal, in July 2015. #
Sebastian Miranda / Barcroft Media via Getty -
![]()
Read moreA view of Salineras de Maras, the salt pans nestled in a canyon of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in the Cuzco region of Peru. #
Lovelypeace / Shutterstock -
![]()
Read moreSalineras de Maras, located at an altitude of 3,500 meters, near Cuzco, in Peru's Andes, photographed on July 22, 2017 #
Frédéric Soltan / Corbis via Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreSoccer goals stand inside a huge chamber in a former salt mine, at a depth of 985 feet (300 meters), near Soledar, Ukraine. #
Marianna Ianovska / Shutterstock -
![]()
Read morePeople swim in a salt pond between Mekele and Berhale, Ethiopia, on December 10, 2018. #
Tran Qui Thinh / Shutterstock -
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of a tourist boat cruising on Chaka Salt Lake on August 12, 2016, in Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China. #
VCG via Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of salt miners leading caravans of camels into the desert in Ethiopia's Afar region in 2016 #
Joel Santos / Barcroft Media via Getty -
![]()
Read moreA man stacks salt blocks as they are dug out by hand in the Danakil Depression on January 22, 2017, in Dallol, Ethiopia. The depression lies 328 feet (100 meters) below sea level and is one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth. Despite the grueling conditions, Ethiopians continue a centuries-old industry of mining salt from the ground by hand while enduring severe temperatures. #
Carl Court / Getty -
![]()
Read moreSulphur and mineral salt formations are seen near Dallol in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia, on April 22, 2013. #
Siegfried Modola / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreA camel caravan carrying salt mined by hand is led across a salt plain in the Danakil Depression on January 22, 2017, near Dallol, Ethiopia. #
Carl Court / Getty -
![]()
Read moreSolar evaporation ponds on the Atacama salt flat in the desert of northern Chile are shown in this 2018 satellite image obtained by Reuters on October 18, 2018. #
LandSat-8 via USGS / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreThe mine worker Joanne Whiston holds a piece of rock salt 500 feet (152 meters) underground in the Winsford rock-salt mine in Winsford, England, on November 12, 2014. The mine, which produces 20,000 tons of salt each day, supplies Britain's highways agency with road salt during the winter months. #
Phil Noble / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreBoys play basketball in the facilities of Belarus's Republican Clinic of Speleotherapy within a salt mine, as part of their treatment, near the town of Soligorsk, on February 19, 2015. #
Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of mechanized salt harvesting on Turkey's Lake Tuz, photographed on October 19, 2018 #
Murat Oner Tas / Anadolu Agency / Getty -
![]()
Read moreSalt stacks at a refining plant, photographed in Salin-de-Giraud, in Arles, France #
Sami Sarkis / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreA woman at work in the salt fields at dawn in Hon Khoi, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, on August 13, 2017 #
Quang Nguyen Vinh / Shutterstock
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.