The village was built in 1796, by Manuel António Martins, and was divided into two parts:

• The houses of the slaves, on the top of the hill.
• The port, the warehouse and the cable car down the hill. The cable car was able to transport up to 80,000kg of salt per hour from inside the crater to the village.

The old crater of Pedra de Lume is famous because of the salt flats that you can find inside. Salt flats that had seen their “golden times” during the 18th century when the salt was mostly exported to Brazil, until 1887 when the Brazilian Government decided to banish the salt importation.

The salt production was revived by a French company named “Salins du Cabo Verde” which was the owner until the end of the 20th century when they closed the production and sold the area to an Italian company who bought it for touristic purposes.

Today the volcano of Pedra de Lume is one of the main attractions of Sal and a must for every tour. You can either enjoy the view from the top of the crater or swim (actually float) in the second most salty water of the world.