Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world’s largest salt flat at 10,582 sq.km. The salty expanse draws many tourists who obviously need a place to stay. In the 1990s, a hotel came up in the middle of the salt desert. It was constructed out of the most abundant material fund at the site – salt!
The Palacio de Sal (Spanish for ‘Palace of Salt’) was a mansion with 12 rooms. However fascinating it was for the guests, the hotel soon ran afoul of sanitation standards and had to be dismantled. A new luxury hotel with 24 rooms was built in its place at the edge of the salt flats, out of about a million 35-cm salt blocks.
Everything in the hotel – the walls, floors ceilings, furniture, and sculptures – is made of salt. The rooms have ceilings resembling igloos. Even the swimming pool and the nine-hole golf course are made of salt. The salt bricks are cemented in place with saltwater. Some parts of the hotel have to be rebuilt every year as they get damaged by rainfall.
The hotel is the brainchild of Juan Quesada Valda, a local artist. There is one rule that all guests in the hotel have to follow – licking the walls is strictly prohibited.
Picture Credit : Google