TOWN BUILT ON SALT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 11 (Supplement)

TOWN BUILT ON SALT

NOW OPEN TO MOTORISTS. One of the most remarkable monuments of nature in Mexico is to be made accessible to motor-car tourists by the construction of a highway from Toluca to Yxtapan de la Sal, situated midway btween Toluca and Sacualpan. Yxtapan is a primitive community having a population of about 1000 Indians. The town is constructed on a great surface bed of salt. The people still maintain a custom that has been handed down through untold generations; they use salt insted of money as a medium of exchange on Sundays. The Roman soldier’s salt ration became known as his “salary”, the word now universally employed for pay. Near the plaza of Yxtapan there rises from the centre of a mass of volcanic folds of dripping lava rock a fountain of hot salt and mineralised water. Just outside is a natural salt bridge across a creek. The bridge is of solid salt with drippings hanging like icicles from its sides and is so solidly formed that cattle pass over it with perfect safety. The construction of the new highway will add materially to the touring attractions for which Mexico is Justly noted.