Salt pans of Augusta
Vonvikken - CC3.0
The salt pans of Augusta, today a protected natural area, were once vast areas in which excellent quality salt was extracted, particularly indicated for the preservation of fish and meat.
The salt pans of Augusta date back to the 16th century. The importance of this salt pan is testified by various historians including Pliny the Elder who, in his book Naturalis Historia, mentions, among the various types of salt he identified, Megaric salt, attributable to Megara Iblea, a small Greek colony in the vicinity of Augusta.
Over the centuries this area has been subject to numerous and catastrophic changes: at the end of the 1860s they were cut into two parts following the construction of the Catania-Syracuse railway tracks and following the construction of the petrochemical complex were closed.
Today the Saline di Augusta, due to their proximity to one of the three petrochemical sites in Syracuse, have been declared a high environmental risk.
