Moray is an inca-agricultural site used for the cultivation of resistant plants in the altitude. In Maras you will find an old colonial church and Salineras is an old inca site to win salt in more than 3000 small pans.
Today we start with a guided tour to the circular terraces in Moray, a unique archaeological site. In Moray various depressions are found, leading downwards from the surface. The deepest one hast nearly 100 m through 12 terraces. Each level served as a kind of agrarian platform with its own irrigation channel. Really impressive is the difference of up to 15°C in the average annual temperature, between the top level and lowest level. For its favorable climatic conditions, Moray became an important center of domestication, hybridisation and acclimatization of wild plant species and therefore were ideally modified or adapted for human consumption.
Next we go to “Salineras”, located about 3 miles northwest of Maras, a typical spanish build village- From Maras it´s a short drive down a canyon that descends to the Rio Vilcanota and the Sacred Valley of the Incas to get to Salineras. Salineras is a salt extraction plant, consisting of approx. 3000 small pans, in average 5 m ², created in the slope of the mountain “Qaqawiñay”. In the dry season, slightly salted wated, coming from a natural spring is added to the pans. The water evaporates and the salt remains. This process is done for a month until a 10 cm thick layer has evolved. Then the salt gets granulated. The entire process has not changed in the last 500 years. In the present time, iodine is added to the salt for a more healty consumption. Finally the salt gets packed in plastic bags and is sold in the local markets throughout the Valley and Cusco.
End of the tour and return to Cusco
