Enjoy a journey through the Sacred Valley of the Incas, to the salt fields of Maras and its seemingly never-ending terraces, where salt extracted from springs is stored. Although these waters have been used for centuries, even before the time of the Incas, Maras were founded by the Spanish in 1556. It supplied salt to the southern highlands during the viceroyalty, so it was an important town. The use of Maras Salt dates back thousands of years and is inherited from generation to generation and managed communally.
It is produced naturally in about 5,000 pools of approximately 5 square meters each forming different levels of terraces, nourished by salty water from a creek that permeates the pools and then evaporated by the intense sun, forming thick crystals. They are extracted once a month, as soon as they have reached a height of 10 cm. It is impressive to see the variety of colours created by the reflection of the sun’s rays in this field of salt deposits and to learn about the Incas striking ability to generate resources.
Continue your excursion to admire the Moray terraces, believed to be a former gigantic agricultural laboratory, an astronomical observatory or a place of worship, or maybe all three. It is thought that Moray was used for plant adaptation to new climatic environments thanks to its circular terraces in immense cone-shaped depressions of 47 to 84 m that resemble giant fingerprints or contour lines. These create a series of microclimates at the different heights of the terraces, which enabled the Incas to experimentally to improve a great variety of crops. Today, it is evidence of the high level of agricultural knowledge they reached.
Then, you will head to the Inca fortress and citadel of Ollantaytambo. This site was built just as the Spaniards arrived and evidence of how it was constructed is still visible. This fortress was believed to be constructed in order to guard the entrance to this part of the valley and protect it from possible invasions of tribes from the jungle lowlands. Later it served as a temporary capital for Manco Inca, leader of the Inca resistance in 1537 during the Spanish conquest of Perú, who fortified the town to stop the advance, as Cusco had fallen under Spanish domination.
Ollantaytambo also features the vestiges of the town built by orders of Inca Pachacutec and thought to be not only a strategic military place to control the Sacred Valley of the Incas but also for agricultural and religious purposes. Additionally, this place is a ceremonial centre dedicated to the purification and worship of water with 150 steps built with perfectly carved stones. The archaeological site includes a series of superimposed terraces and stunning finely carved stone blocks located on the upper terrace or Temple of the Sun. The main settlement has an orthogonal layout with four streets crossed by other seven parallel streets and at the centre, the Incas built a large plaza about the size of four blocks.
Lunch will be served today in a local restaurant