The salt pans at Maras, a short drive north of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, are one of the odder sights in the Peruvian Andes — about 5,000 small evaporation terraces cut into a hillside, fed by a single salty spring that’s been running since pre-Inca times.
Salt was a strategic commodity in the Inca empire. Harvested from the Maras spring, it was used for seasoning, for food preservation at high altitude, and as trade currency. The site is still worked today by local families — each family owns a set of terraces, and the salt is sold at the entrance.
Visitors can walk the terrace paths (not on the pans themselves) and buy pink salt directly from the producers. The visual — white and pink geometric terraces running down the red-earth hillside — is the main draw.
Peruways combines Maras with the Moray circular agricultural terraces nearby on a half-day loop out of the Sacred Valley. See options at Peruways.
