There’s an abandoned factory between the Platani river and the Agrigento-Palermo railroad tracks. It has a faded writing saying “saline italiane” (Italian salt works).
It intrigues us and makes us want to know more. We find out that Sicily exports salt since at least 3000 years ago. Ancient greeks colonising the area called the Platani river “Halykòs”, which means salty.
Well before the greeks, the sicanian people went upriver to extract salt rock and sell it to people coming from elsewhere, maybe Phoenicians, who would sometimes pay in gold to get it and use it to store food.
It’s therefore one of the oldest commercial activities on the island. But where did all this salt come from?
From a geological process that, six million years ago, transformed the whole Mediterranean in a giant salt pond. We’ll find out more moving the next steps.
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