MORAY & MARAS SALT MINES
We’ll begin our trajectory en route to the Urubamba River Valley, where we’ll make our first stop at Moray, a complex system of concentric agricultural terraces which served as an Incan agricultural laboratory to experiment with their crops. Continuing our excursion we will arrive at Maras, a picturesque town chosen as the residence for the descendants of the Incas of Hurin Cusco. Its church and estates which still show noble coats of arms attest to the town’s former role as the central salt producer for the southern mountains during the colonial era. Nearby the town, one finds the salt pans of Maras, locally known as salineras. These impressive staggered stone terraces have been cut into thousands of little pools through which a subterranean stream trickles, depositing so much salt that the mountainside appears to be covered in snow. These have been used for thousands of years, from before the time of the Inca empire up to the modern day. We’ll return to the city of Cusco around 14:00pm in the afternoon.
