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The shallow pink Laguna de Torrevieja with low white salt mounds and the distant town
Reviewed August 2026
Torrevieja

The salt of Torrevieja: the lagoons, the pink water and the birds

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Two shallow lagoons lie immediately inland of Torrevieja: the greener Laguna de La Mata to the north and the larger, often pink Laguna de Torrevieja to the south. They are linked to each other and, through a channel called El Acequión, to the sea. Together they form a single salt-production system and a protected wetland, and they are the reason the town exists.

A very old industry

Salt has been taken here since antiquity. There is underwater evidence of Roman salt working at La Mata, and a privilege granted by Alfonso X in 1273 allowed local people to take salt from the lagoon. For centuries La Mata was the working lagoon. Industrial exploitation of the Torrevieja lagoon began in the early nineteenth century, and when the salt administration moved to Torrevieja in 1803 the balance shifted south for good.

How the salt is made

The system works by controlled evaporation. Seawater is let into the lagoons and concentrated by the strong summer sun and wind until salt crystallises on the bed of the Torrevieja lagoon. It is lifted by floating harvesters, washed, drained in white mountains beside the water and then moved by conveyor and rail to the port. Output is large, in the order of several hundred thousand tonnes a year, with roughly a quarter used in Spain and the rest exported. The Torrevieja and La Mata salinas are among the biggest salt operations in Europe.

Why one lagoon is pink

The colour is biological, not chemical. In very salty water a microscopic alga, Dunaliella salina, together with salt-loving bacteria, produces red and orange pigments, and in the Torrevieja lagoon this can turn the whole surface a muted rose, strongest in high summer. La Mata carries a lower salt concentration, so different organisms dominate and its water reads as green or turquoise. The pink is natural and uneven, not the vivid magenta of edited photographs.

A protected wetland

The lagoons and their margins were declared the Parque Natural de las Lagunas de La Mata y Torrevieja in 1989. The park covers around 3,700 hectares across Torrevieja, Guardamar del Segura, Los Montesinos and Rojales. Despite being a working industrial landscape it is one of the most important bird sites on this coast, listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention and as a Special Protection Area for birds. Greater flamingos feed here in numbers, alongside black-necked grebes, avocets, black-winged stilts and shelducks, and the salt-tolerant scrub around the water supports its own specialised plants.

Seeing the lagoons

  • The park visitor centre sits beside the La Mata lagoon, off the road towards Guardamar, and marked paths and hides run from there along the shore.
  • The Torrevieja lagoon is edged by the town's western parks and by the Acequión channel, which reaches the sea near the port.
  • The salt pans are a live industrial site. Stay on the public paths and do not enter the working areas or the conveyors.
  • Colour and bird numbers are seasonal. Late spring and summer show the pink water and the flamingos at their most reliable.

The salt landscape is shared with neighbours. Guardamar del Segura holds the northern edge of the park where the Segura meets the sea, and the town guide for Torrevieja covers the port, the grid and the Habaneras that grew out of this trade.

Sources and review

Reviewed in August 2026 using the Generalitat Valenciana description of the natural park, the park's own visitor information, the Torrevieja salt company's public material and published work on the ecology of hypersaline lagoons. Production figures and access arrangements change, so check current details before a visit.