Ţara Secaşelor is a hilly region with a typical southern Transylvanian cultural mixture: from Dacian and Roman vestiges, medieval fortresses and ramparts to quaint wooden churches.
There are very early mentions about the exploitation of salt. A “salt route” has been known since prehistoric times. It was the Romans who included Ocna Sibiului in a genuine exploitation network, thus setting the basis of the so-called “salt route”. The Ocna Sibiului – Rusciori - Mag – Amnaș – Apoldu de Jos – Sebeș – Alba-Iulia route is the old salt road which used to be travelled by merchants carrying the white gold from the Ocna Sibiului salt mines.
Other routes go back to the Middle Ages or the Habsburg days and there are also the spectacular transports made by oxen-driven carts on the Ocna Sibiului – Topârcea – Ludoş – Sângătin route up to Vinţu de Jos where raftsmen from the Mureş river took over the goods.
Salt processing is an old tradition of Ocna Sibiului - the last salt mine was closed in 1931 on the spot where the Gura Minei (The Mine’s Mouth) lake has formed. The salted lakes were formed through the flooding of the old mines; they have the highest salt concentration in Europe and are the centre of the Ocna Sibiului health resort - the region’s tourism pole.