The lagoon Mar Menor – Spanish Dead Sea

Covering an area of 170 km, the Mar Menor in the Region of Murcia in Spain, is the largest salt water in Europe, The water is only 7 metres deep at its lowest point, and is edged with kilometer after of sandy beaches sloping gently into water, creating a shallow, sandy fringe, which warms to an extraordinary degree during the summer months. It is possible in many places to be 50 metres out from the shore, and still only be standing knee deep in the water.

La Manga

La Manga or La Manga del Mar Menor (meaning “The Sandbar of the Minor Sea”) is a seaside spit of Mar Menor. The strip is 21 km long and 100 metres wide (average), separating the Mediterranean Sea from the Mar Menor (Minor Sea) lagoon, from Cabo de Palos to the Punta del Mojón.

Healing muds

Whilst the Mar Menor, is a popular location for leisure sports, fishing and beach holidays, its also known as the sea of health because of its warm waters, high salinity and healing muds.

The therapeutic properties of mud have been known since antiquity and used in both medical and beauty treatments for thousands of years. Special climatic conditions in the Mar Menor, and the surrounding Salinas, have brought about clay deposits which contain a high percentage of positive ions, calcium, magnesium, potassium and fluoride, in addition to negative ions, chlorine and sulphate, which combine with extraordinarily fine sand to create a unique, healing mud.

This is found in abundance in several locations around the edges of the Mar Menor, namely Las Charcas, or the Banos de Lodo de lo Pagan in San Pedro del Pinatar, the Marchamalo salt flats at the southern end of La Manga. The Banos de Lodo are particularly recommended for arthritic conditions, rheumatism, broken bones and skin conditions, as well as being a beauty treatment used worldwide for many centuries.