Location
Maras salt ponds or mines are located 40 kilometers north of Cusco, in Peru.
What is it
Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in the Maras area by evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream.
The highly salty water emerges at a spring, a natural outlet of the underground 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. These ponds form a spectacular mosaic of polygon shapes and colours.
