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How have people traditionally collected salt from Arabian salt flats?

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Arabian Desert The Arabian Desert, the largest desert in Asia, covering an area of about 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 square km).

For hundreds of years, people in the Arabian Peninsula have traditionally collected crude salt from two types of saline environments: the sabkhah (a coastal saline flat) and the mamlaḥah (an interior saline basin).1

These salt-gathering practices are rooted in the region's unique geography:

Sabkhahs: These are gently sloping, sandy plains located along the coast where seawater is trapped and concentrated into strong brine by high rates of evaporation. The salt crust that forms on the surface is often harvested by local populations.1
Mamlaḥahs: These are saline basins found in enclosed valleys. They typically develop through the evaporation of floodwaters that contain dissolved minerals or from the evaporation of saline waters sourced from nearby salt outcrops.1

By quarrying these deposits, inhabitants have historically utilized these natural features as a reliable source of salt.1