A Half Day - Maras Moray And Salt Flats From Cusco

Maras is a town in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, 40 kilometers north of Cusco. The town is well known for its salt evaporation ponds, located towards Urubamba from the town center, which have been in use since Inca times. The salt-evaporation ponds are four kilometers north of the town, down a canyon that descends to the Rio Vilcanota and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The Maras area is accessible by a paved road, which leads from the main road leading through the Sacred Valley between Cuzco and the surrounding towns. Tourist sites in the area include the colonial church, the nearby Moray Inca ruins, the local salt evaporation ponds, and the surrounding scenery.

Salt ponds of Maras. Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream,The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds. That had been exploited from Inca times as means of economical trade.

The complex is located 74 km (46 miles) from Cuzco City, at 3,500 masl (11,483 fasl). An outstanding archaeological site because It is about of natural gigantic holes, that were used to build terraces around them with their own irrigation aqueducts; what is outstanding is the difference of temperature during the year between the upper part and the bottom of the hole, which can be 15 degrees C different. The biggest hole is 150 meters deep and the terraces are 1.8m tall (average). The terraces, built over retaining walls filled with fertile soil and irrigated with watered by complex systems allowed to grow more than 250 vegetal species. These terraces were used as Inca laboratories to make experiments with their crops. Moray has history and landscape beauty. Other studies suggest that the site was used for astronomical observation and for monitoring climatic changes. This was done by following the sun light and shadows that appear on the area's high mountains.