Situated on the southeast slopes of the Majevica Mountain, the city of Tuzla occupies the central area ofnortheast Bosnia. The elevation of the town is 239m above sea level, and it stretches across an area of approximately 15km². The city’s population is approximately 100,000, but the greater municipal area has over 170,000 inhabitants. Tuzla claims to be the economic, scientific, cultural, educational, health and tourist centre of northeast Bosnia, basically taking credit for most things that go on in the northeast, and to some extent this is true. The area of Tuzla’s saltwater springs has been inhabited from the Neolithic age to the present day. The settlement of Tuzla has always been closely tied to its salt resources. The oldest written records, left behind by the Greeks, prove that even they knew of the region. In his historic writings from ad950, the Byzantine historian and tsar Constantine Porfirogenet mentions the existence of Tuzla’s saltwater springs and the settlements surrounding them. Tuzla received its name – after its abundant mineral resource – much later. The present-day name is derived from the Turkish word tuz, meaning ‘salt’. The first document recording the exploitation of Tuzla’s saltwater springs dates from 1548. Salt was produced here all year round and salt wells were located on the present-day Salt Square.