Not surprisingly, the economy of the Spanish holiday island relies primarily on its tourist trade. But it's a limited summer season. Hotels, bars and restaurants are still applying their final lick of paint (or are still being built) at the beginning of June. The mega-nightclubs have their closing parties at the end of September. In October the tour operators, whose charter flights will have disgorged hundreds of thousands of package tourists from all over Europe during the summer months, now concentrate on their winter resorts in neighbouring Mallorca or the Canary Islands. Ibiza is reclaimed by the locals. No direct international flights will serve the island until the following May.
This frantic seasonal rush is naturally the economic mainstay of the Pitiuses (Ibiza and its tiny sister island Formentera). But tourism couldn't do it alone. Las Salinas (the salt pans), next to the airport on the southern tip of the island, have been in use for at least 2500 years.
The first people to discover Ibiza were the Carthaginians in the 7 th century BC. They realised that the Mediterranean island was the perfect trading post for their empire, and must have been rubbing their hands with glee when they discovered its precious natural resource.
Salt had always been much prized. The "white gold" was used as a currency in some cultures, and was still being heavily taxed in the Middle Ages.
The Carthaginians constructed salt pans to extract the mineral from sea water through natural evaporation during the hot summer months.
Ibiza was also perfect for the merchants for other reasons. The city was well-fortified (the old town still has an impressive wall, although this dates from much later), and had a large, deep harbour (the giant cruise-liners still dock comfortably).
In the 9 th century AD it was the turn of the Arabs, who stayed for nearly 500 years. Apart from fishing and agriculture, it was again salt that kept the local economy growing.
By the Middle Ages, the lucrative salt trade was still going strong. Scandinavian fishermen would stop here to stock up enough supplies to preserve their catch during the long journey home. Northern Europe is still the main importer of Ibiza salt.
So how does the process work? Local climatic conditions mean that the amount of evaporation is always higher than the amount of rainfall. The sea water sits in the pans until enough has evaporated to leave a concentrated brine. This goes through a series of crystallizing stages which leaves the salt deposited on the sides of the pans. It's then raked up and piled into a soggy mountain which drips back into the pool at its foot. When as much water as possible has run out of the bottom of the mountain, the salt, now beginning to look much whiter and shinier, is moved to a drier site. Anyone who's flown into Ibiza airport may have wondered why there's an iceberg by the beach. And here it waits for the boats to arrive.
Las Salinas doesn't only justify itself on economic grounds. The surrounding area has been designated a Nature Reserve because of its unique eco-system. The shrubbery and pine forests are home to over a hundred species of birds. Its protected status should, at least, shield the area from the constant construction that is still blighting the rest of the island.
The adjacent beach of Las Salinas is one of the best and most popular on Ibiza, with crystal clear sea that is the trademark of the Pitiuses. The Nature Reserve status has also prevented this strip of white sand and rocky inlets from being colonized by the rows of hotels that have taken over nearby Figueretas and Playa d'en Bossa.
Nowadays how much salt we eat is, of course, a matter of personal taste or medical advice. But Ibiza wouldn't have thrived without it. The salt pans of Las Salinas are one of the many fascinating features of this varied and enduring island.
