In the Salento hinterland, between Otranto and Monte Sant’Angelo lies the Cava di Bauxite of Otranto, an emerald green lake that fascinates small visitors in particular. It is a quarry for the extraction of bauxite, a mineral from which aluminum is obtained.
Bauxite, extracted for about twenty years in the 60s and 70s, was shipped to the city port in the direction of Marghera where it was processed, until in 1976 the quarry was finally abandoned due to the expensive mining process.
The charm of the lake is given both by the color it takes, thanks to the infiltration of water of one of the many aquifers present in the karstic territory, and by the earth that surrounds it in red, colored by the dominant presence of the mineral.
