Maras Salt Pans (Salineras de Maras)

The salt pans of Maras are a place where an Inca-era industry still runs much as it always has. Hundreds of small terraced ponds, by some counts several thousand, step down a canyon about four kilometres north of the village of Maras, which sits at around 3,300 metres some 40 kilometres north of Cusco.

The system is simple and clever. Very salty water emerges from a spring, the natural outlet of an underground stream, and is led through narrow channels onto the terraces. As the water evaporates in the sun, salt crystallises on the walls and floor of each pond. The keeper then closes the inlet and lets the pond dry, repeating the cycle for about a month before the harvest. The first layer gathered is pink or white and is the finest, sold as table salt; the second is a lower-grade, usually white bulk salt; and the third, typically brown, goes for industrial use.

Salt has been taken here since Inca times, and local people describe the way the ponds are shared as a cooperative system that goes back to that period. Owners of ponds must be members of the community, and a new family is given a pond at the far edge of the workings, sized to the household. A would-be salt farmer looks for an unmaintained pond and asks the informal cooperative for permission to take it on.

Since September 2019 tourists have not been allowed to walk around the pools themselves because of contamination, which helps keep the salt clean for the families who depend on it. Salt from the pans is sold at a gift shop nearby, and it makes a light, useful souvenir to take home.

Maras combines naturally with the circular Inca terraces of Moray, which lie close to the village, so the two are easy to see on the same day, and Ollantaytambo is not far beyond. The village itself has a colonial church that is worth a look on the way through. The canyon is sunny and exposed, so bring sun protection and water, and wear shoes with grip, as the paths can be dusty or slippery after rain.