A spring rises inside this mountain carrying water five times saltier than the sea. Nobody knows exactly when people started catching it, but the terraces were already ancient when the Inca formalised the system, and the same families have worked them ever since — around 3,000 shallow pans stepping down a red ravine above the Urubamba.
The method has not changed. A network of hand-cut channels feeds each pool in turn; the sun does the rest; and every few weeks the owner rakes out a crust of pink salt. Ownership is communal and inherited — the pans belong to the Maras community, and any resident may claim an unworked one.
Top things to do at Maras Salt Mines
Take in the whole basin from the viewpoint
The main platform above the pans is where the classic photograph comes from — thousands of white and ochre rectangles fitted into the hillside.
Watch the harvest
If you come in the dry season you will see workers scraping crusted salt into piles and carrying it out in sacks on their shoulders.
Buy salt at the source
Stalls at the entrance sell pink cooking salt, salt flakes and salt-based cosmetics. It is cheaper here than anywhere in Cusco.
Combine it with Moray
The two sit on the same plateau, twenty minutes apart, and nearly every tour pairs them. Doing them together is the efficient move.
How to get to Maras Salt Mines
- From Ollantaytambo: about 45 minutes by car via Urubamba and the Maras turn-off.
- From Cusco: roughly 1 hour 30 minutes; almost all Sacred Valley tours include it.
- On foot: a well-known downhill trail runs from the Maras road to the pans and on to Tarabamba on the valley floor — about 2 to 3 hours.
Insider tips
- Maras is not on the Cusco Tourist Ticket. There is a separate entrance fee of about S/10, cash only.
- Since 2019 visitors can no longer walk among the pans — you view them from the platforms and the perimeter path.
- At 3,380 m and with white salt reflecting the sun, this is the most exposed stop in the valley. Sunglasses and a hat are essential.
- Late afternoon light turns the pools gold; midday flattens them out.
Best tours & tickets for Maras Salt Mines
These top-rated experiences are the easiest way to see Maras Salt Mines without organising a thing:
