Tuareg nomads selling salt cakes at the camp site. (Camp Aouï, Aïr, Niger)

Untouched portrait of a worker at the Bilma saline.

Salt statues, a living eternity. A worker at the Bilma saline.

The mushroom-shaped salt is loaded onto camels for transport. - Bilma / Kaouar / Niger

In Bilma, salt is extracted using a very old method, by evaporating the brine in holes. - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1975

In Bilma, salt is extracted using a very old method, by evaporating the brine in holes. In the background you can see salt domes and resting dromedaries before they set off with the Azalaï to Agadez. - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1968

Salt worker at the Kalala salt works near Bilma. - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1975

Bilma, an important town in the Kaouar, owes its peculiar social and commercial traditions to its difficult geographical location. The picture shows a woman shaping "salt loaves", so-called "household packs". In fact, this quantity is used by families as a unit of account, much like the sugar stick, and it is remarkable that consumers often do not know the weight of either. More extensive forms of trade are brought by caravans to Agadez and are mainly used for animals. - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1968

The grey-yellow kantu, which are produced in cone form as cattle salt and weigh about 25 kg, are reminiscent of slightly oversized traffic pylons. The shape comes from the fact that hollowed-out palm stalks serve the salt workers as moulds for drying the salt. About three quarters of the salt produced is made as Kantu salt. - Bilma - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1968

The grey-yellow kantu, which are produced in cone form as cattle salt and weigh about 25 kg, are reminiscent of slightly oversized traffic pylons. The shape comes from the fact that hollowed-out palm stalks serve the salt workers as moulds for drying the salt. Another product form of salt is the so-called fotschi (foschi) (in the background), salt loaves shaped by women in enamel bowls, weighing up to about 2 kg and mostly consisting of beza, crystallised, relatively pure salt that is used as table salt. About three quarters of the salt produced is kantu salt, one quarter is beza salt. - Bilma - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1975

The grey-yellow kantu, which are produced in cone form as cattle salt and weigh about 25 kg, are reminiscent of slightly oversized traffic pylons. The shape comes from the fact that hollowed-out palm stalks serve the salt workers as moulds for drying the salt. About three quarters of the salt produced is made as Kantu salt. - Bilma - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1968

Packing the blocks requires a special skill and is done while the traders discuss the terms of the trade. Once an agreement is reached, the salt blocks are loaded onto the camels. - Bilma - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1975

Packing the blocks requires a special skill and is done while the traders discuss the terms of the trade. Once an agreement is reached, the salt blocks are loaded onto the camels. - Bilma - Kaouar - Ténéré - Niger - 1968

A little girl crushes salt - Timbuktu - Mali - 1969

Warehouse in the Oued Aouï - Salt from Bilma is traded here - Niger - Aïr - 2003

Photo Gallery