Mozia and the Salt Pans

Mozia and the Salt Pans

When you come from Trapani, shortly before arriving in Marsala, there are low islands that barely emerge from the Stagnone lagoon.

At low tide you can walk a few hundred metres taking to you Motya. And if you do not feel like wlking, a largge boat will get you there in just a few minutes.

This beautiful place is surrounded by Isola Grande, Isola Santa Maria and La Scuola Islet, just opposite of the white Marsala salt-pans. Motya is a little natural and archaeological miracle with fragments of walls, flights of steps, and fortifications.

The silence here is broken by the slow rhythmic waves crashing against the stones.  

The cothon, a rare example of a Punic artificial harbour  (the only one in Sicily), weaves in among the stone blocks of green scrub and sandy earth.

This is a rich and strong landscape, neither rugged nor soft, which encompasses the remains of a Punic city never again rebuilt after its life came to an end in 397 BC.  

With regards to nature and archaeology, the salt-pans are particularly important because here emerge the windmills.

These are fascinating types of industrial archaeology which is gradually being brought back to their original form.

Numerous salt-pan buildings are also undergoing timely restoration and have become part of the salt-pan activity museum, bearing witness to ancient work that still lives.

It is a landscape of extraordinary impact.