<P> Himalayan salt is rock salt or halite from the Punjab region of Pakistan . It was named "Himalayan Pink Salt" after the iron rich pink clay ore found in the Himalayas . </P> <P> The concentration of salt near Khewra, Punjab is said to have been discovered around 326 BC when the troops led by Alexander the Great stopped to rest there and noticed their horses licking the salty rocks . Salt was probably mined there from that time, but the first records of mining are from the Janjua people in the 1200s . </P> <P> Himalayan salt is mostly mined at the Khewra Salt Mine in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, which is situated in the foothills of the Salt Range hill system in the Punjab province of the Pakistan Indo - Gangetic Plain . It is located about 310 km (190 mi) from the Himalayas, 260 km (160 mi) from Lahore, and 298 km (185 mi) from Amritsar, India . </P> <P> Himalayan salt is chemically similar to table salt plus mineral impurities like chromium, iron, zinc, lead, and copper; some salts mined in the Himalayans are not suitable for use as food or industrial use without purification, due to these impurities . </P>

Where does the himalayan pink salt come from