Ruta 8: The Salt Mountain
The visitor understands the importance of water in general and groundwater in particular in everyday life.
This 42.6 km journey (not including the microroutes) starts in Villena and ends at Cabezo de la Sal de Pinoso. Along the route we will cross the streets of Villena, to follow the route under our feet of the old galleries of water. Captions dug under the city to supply the population and irrigate nearby fields.
We will also visit the salt flats, artificial lagoons in which the hypersaline waters of springs and soundings evaporate to obtain tons of mineral white. Further southwest, crossing beautiful fields of vineyards irrigated by drip irrigation thanks to various wells, we will reach the town of Salinas, where we can walk through its natural lagoon, surrounded by the typical halophilous vegetation.
Finally, we will go to Pinoso and cross an enormous irrigation pond belonging to the Júcar-Vinalopó waterway. We will visit another wetland saline, the lagoon of El Rodriguillo and we will ascend until the one known as Cabezo, Turó or Salt Mountain, that gives title to this route.
In this salt dome we will end the day, between dolines, soundings that serve to exploit the salt of its interior, a salty spring and the beginning of the salmueroducto Pinoso-Torrevieja.
Highlighted Places of Hydrogeological Interest
The dolines of the saline dome of Pinoso
A visit for the saline dome of Pinoso allows to observe the typical ruiniform terrain and badlands that the erosion originates in the clay-sandy triassic materials that compose this mountain.
In addition, morphologies such as caves, chasms and dolinas appear, also present in gypsum and salt lithologies, which are much more soluble than limestone.
The Pinoso dolines are made up of numerous depressions in the terrain, more or less circular, which are concentrated in a small area on the highest part of the mountain, giving rise to a field of dolines.
Microroutes
Villena
The town of Villena has elements that are intimately related to groundwater and its use, although it should be borne in mind that the infrastructure of this microroute is not directly visitable. Under the town centre of Villena there are two galleries that historically collected the waters of several boreholes and allowed both agricultural irrigation and urban supply, it is the Mina del Rosario, which carries the water to the irrigation pond, and the Mina Fisura, which flows into the Fountain of the Donkeys.
.
El Cabezo de la Sal of Pinoso
The starting point of this microroute is close to the facilities of the leasing company of the salt flats of Torrevieja, which are above the saline dome. The route, less than 3 km long, will allow you to observe some of the facilities and infrastructures that are necessary for the exploitation of the salt of this dome. It is recommended to make the itinerary on foot, remembering that a few precautions must be taken when visiting the numerous dolinas in the area, avoiding getting too close to their mouths.
menu vol 2
