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Quick answer
Salt pans are shallow basins where sun and wind evaporate brine to harvest salt. They are among the oldest salt production methods.
A shallow, flat basin used for harvesting salt through solar evaporation. Seawater or brine is channeled into salt pans where sun and wind evaporate the water, leaving salt crystals. Traditional salt pans have been used for thousands of years.
A salt pan is a shallow basin where sun and wind evaporate brine or seawater to harvest salt. Workers flood pans, then rake crystals as salinity peaks. Traditional pans have operated for thousands of years on every inhabited coast.
In Practice
Gujarat and Sicily still use coastal salt pans for sea salt. In France, paludiers channel Atlantic water into clay-lined pans for fleur de sel and sel gris.