Maras

A strange site.  Located some 40 km. from Cuzco, it offers a startling sight of layers of beige and white salt pants that are still used to crystallize salt from water flowing from a nearby mountain. Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water thousands of pools in the sun, leaving the salt behind.

It is a location not very popular among tourists doing the typical 3-4 day visits to Cuzco but we found it extremely interesting due to the sheer size of the site, its location on a hillside overlooking the Sacred Valley and of course the simple fact that a salt water spring has been flowing from a mountain with impressive force for more than a 1000 years (or really who knows for how long!) providing a source of much needed high quality salt.