Maras and Moray: The Salt Mines and the Circular Inca Terraces
Moray and Maras are two neighbouring sites on the high plateau between Cusco and the Sacred Valley: Moray is a set of concentric circular Inca terraces, and the Maras salt mines are thousands of small pools where local families still harvest salt from a spring by hand. They are only a short drive apart, so they are almost always visited together, usually on the way to Ollantaytambo and the train to Machu Picchu. Moray sits at about 3,500 m and is covered by the Cusco tourist ticket; the salt mines lie lower, at around 3,000 to 3,300 m, and have their own community entrance. Both are part of the Sacred Valley day on our packages, with entrances included. This article goes deeper into these two stops; for the whole valley, read our Sacred Valley guide.
Moray vs Maras at a glance
| Moray | Maras salt mines (Salineras de Maras) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Natural hollows shaped into concentric circular terraces | Thousands of small salt evaporation pools stepped down a ravine |
| Built by | The Incas | Worked before the Incas, expanded and used by them, still worked today |
| Approx. altitude | About 3,500 m (11,480 ft) | Around 3,000 to 3,300 m (9,840 to 10,830 ft) |
| Who runs it | Ministry of Culture, as an archaeological site | The local communities of Maras and Pichingoto, who own the pools |
| Ticket | Cusco tourist ticket (full ticket or Circuit III) | Separate community entrance, not in the tourist ticket |
| What you do | Walk the rim path and look down into the circles | Viewpoint over the pans, a walk on the marked path, salt shops |
| Best season | Greenest in the rainy months, clearest in the dry season | Dry season (May to September), when the salt is harvested |
Where Maras and Moray are
Both sites lie on the Maras plateau, the rolling farmland that stretches between Cusco and the Urubamba River. Coming from Cusco, the road climbs over the pass and runs through Chinchero, then crosses the plateau with the snow peaks of the Urubamba range ahead of you. From the road to Urubamba a side road turns off towards the village of Maras, and from there one track continues to Moray and another drops down towards the salt pans. Allow roughly an hour and a half by road from Cusco, depending on traffic and stops.
The geography explains the altitudes. Moray sits up on the plateau, at about 3,500 m, almost the same height as Cusco (3,400 m (11,150 ft)). The salt mines are not on the plateau but in a side ravine that falls towards the Sacred Valley, so they are a few hundred metres lower. Below them is the valley floor, where Urubamba sits at about 2,870 m. That is why a day that takes in both sites feels like a slow descent: high and open in the morning, warmer and greener by lunch.
If you have just arrived in Cusco, the height of Moray still matters. Walk slowly on the rim path and drink water; our guide to altitude sickness in Cusco explains why the first days are the ones to take easy.
Moray: what the circular terraces are
Moray is made up of several natural depressions in the plateau that the Incas turned into rings of terraces, each level held up by a stone retaining wall. The best preserved and most photographed is the largest hollow, where the circles narrow down to a flat round floor like a sunken green amphitheatre. Next to it are smaller groups of terraces, some circular and some oval, and in places you can see the stone steps set into the walls that let farmers climb from one level to the next.
What makes Moray unusual is not the terraces themselves, which you see all over the Cusco region, but their shape. Most Inca terraces follow a hillside; at Moray they turn inwards around a central point. Building them meant moving a great deal of earth and managing water, because a closed hollow fills with rain unless it drains. The terraces at Moray do drain, which is one reason engineers who have studied the site admire it.
The site belongs to the archaeological heritage managed by Peru's Ministry of Culture. Visitors walk along a path on the rim and the upper edge of the terraces; walking down onto the terraces or into the bottom of the circles is not allowed, to protect the walls.
Was Moray an Inca agricultural laboratory?
You will hear Moray called an Inca agricultural laboratory on almost every tour, and it is the most widely accepted theory, but it is a theory. No Inca document explains what Moray was for. The idea comes from the shape of the site: because the hollows are deep and open to the sky, each ring receives a different amount of sun and shelter from the wind, so the temperature and humidity change from the rim to the bottom. A ring of terraces could therefore reproduce, in a small space, some of the different conditions of the Andes, from the cold high plains to the warmer valleys.
From there comes the interpretation that the Incas used Moray to test and adapt crops, such as maize, potatoes and other Andean plants, to different altitudes, and perhaps to choose the best seed for each zone of the empire. It fits with what we know of Inca farming, which was highly organised and spread over many ecological levels.
Other researchers put more weight on ceremonial or astronomical uses, or on a combination of farming and ritual, and some note that the hollows themselves are natural sinkholes that may have had a special meaning before any terraces were built. Many popular articles quote precise figures for the temperature difference between top and bottom; we have not found a published measurement we can confirm, so we leave the number out. What you can feel for yourself on a sunny day is that the rim is windy and cool while the lower rings look sheltered and warm.
The Maras salt mines: how the Salineras work
The Salineras de Maras fill a steep ravine below the village of Maras with a patchwork of shallow pools, most of them only a few square metres each. Everything starts with a salt spring, known locally as Qoripujio, that rises inside the mountain. Instead of flowing away, it is guided through a network of tiny channels cut into the slope, and each family opens and closes its own channel with a stone or a handful of mud to fill its pools.
Once a pool is full, the sun and the dry mountain air do the work. Over the following weeks the water evaporates, the salt crystallises, and the owner scrapes it up, piles it at the edge of the pool and carries it uphill in sacks. Then the pool is filled again. The pools are separated by narrow walls of mud and salt, which is why the whole hillside looks frosted in white, cream and pale brown.
The pools belong to families from the local communities of Maras and Pichingoto, who inherit and work them and organise the site and its sales as a community business. Salt was produced here before the Incas, the Incas used and expanded the pans, and they have stayed in use ever since. That is what makes Maras special: it is not a ruin but a working salt mine, and the people you see bent over the pools are doing the same work their grandparents did.
When to visit Maras and Moray
For the salt, come in the dry season. The harvest depends on the sun, so it happens mainly in the dry months, May to September. That is when the pools are at their whitest and you are most likely to see families at work. From roughly December to March rain dilutes the water in the pools and washes over the walls, so production slows or stops and the pans look brown and muddy. They are still worth seeing, but the photo will not be the snow-white one you have in mind.
Moray is beautiful in both seasons. In the rainy months the grass on the terraces turns bright green, as in the photos in this article; in the dry season it is golden and the sky is usually clearer, with the snow peaks in view. April, May, September and October are a good compromise for both sites: the rains are mostly over or have not yet started, and there are fewer visitors than in June and July.
Time of day. The plateau is cold early in the morning and strongly sunny from late morning onwards, when the white salt reflects the light. Mornings are quieter at both sites. On our Sacred Valley day you reach them in the late morning, after Chinchero, which is a good time for the light on the salt pans. For a month-by-month view of the weather in the region, see our guide to the best time to visit Machu Picchu.
Tickets: the tourist ticket and the salt mines entrance
The two sites are paid for in different ways, which confuses many travellers.
Moray is one of the sites of the Boleto Turístico del Cusco, the Cusco tourist ticket managed by COSITUC. You can enter it with the full ticket, which is valid for 10 days and covers 16 sites and museums, or with the Circuit III partial ticket, which covers the Sacred Valley sites of Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero and Moray and is valid for 2 days for foreign visitors. At the time of writing, COSITUC's official price list gives S/ 130 for the full ticket and S/ 70 for a partial ticket for foreign visitors. There is no separate ticket just for Moray.
The Maras salt mines are not in the tourist ticket. They have their own entrance, collected by the community at the access to the salt pans. The amount is set by the community and changes from time to time, so we do not quote it here; carry some cash in soles if you are visiting on your own.
On our packages you do not need to buy either: the entrance tickets for the sites visited on the Sacred Valley day are included, Moray and the salt mines among them.
How Maras and Moray fit in our Sacred Valley day
- Which tours: the Sacred Valley VIP day is Day 4 of the Peru 7 days package, Day 6 of the Peru 9 days package and Day 5 of the Peru and Bolivia 12-day tour. On the 12-day tour the day runs from about 6:30 am to 6:30 pm.
- First stop, Chinchero: a weaving house and the archaeological park, on the way across the plateau.
- Late morning, Moray and the Maras salt mines: the circular terraces first, then the salt pans, with your guide explaining both.
- Lunch in Urubamba: a buffet lunch at a traditional restaurant on the valley floor.
- Afternoon, Ollantaytambo: a guided visit to the Inca citadel, where the excursion ends. Read more in our Ollantaytambo guide.
- Evening, the train: we take you to Ollantaytambo station about an hour before your tourist train to Aguas Calientes, where you sleep. Machu Picchu is the next morning.
- Included that day: guide, transport, entrance tickets for the sites visited, the buffet lunch and the train. Not on this day: Pisac.
Why visit them on the way to Machu Picchu
Many agencies in Cusco sell Maras and Moray as a half-day trip that returns to the city. It works, but it means driving the same plateau twice. Seeing them on the way to the train is more efficient: the road from Cusco to Ollantaytambo already passes the turn-off, so Chinchero, Moray and Maras become stops on a route you have to travel anyway, and you end the day at the station instead of back in Cusco.
It is also a gentler day for your body. You start at Cusco's altitude, spend the morning on the plateau, and finish on the valley floor at Ollantaytambo before going down again to Aguas Calientes. The train itself, the companies and the luggage limits are explained in our guide on how to get to Machu Picchu. If you only have a few days, our things to do in Cusco guide helps you decide what else to fit around it.
What to buy at Maras: the salt
At the entrance to the salt mines, families sell the salt from their own pools, which is the best souvenir you can take home from the Sacred Valley: light, cheap, useful and made on the spot. You will usually find several kinds:
Table salt in small bags, the everyday product, slightly pinkish or cream in colour because of the minerals in the spring water. Flor de sal, the fine crystals that form on the surface of the pools and are skimmed off first; chefs value it as a finishing salt. Flavoured salts, mixed with local chilli, herbs or other Andean ingredients. And bath salts and other small products made with Maras salt.
Buying here puts money directly into the hands of the communities who work the pans. Bring small notes and coins in soles, as card payment is not something to count on at the stalls. Salt in sealed bags is normally fine in checked or hand luggage, but check the rules of your airline and your home country if you are carrying large quantities.
Practical tips for Maras and Moray
- Stay on the marked paths at the salt mines. The walls between the pools are made of mud and salt and they are someone's livelihood. Walk only where the community allows visitors, follow your guide and do not step into or onto the pools.
- Wear shoes with grip. The paths at Maras are narrow, uneven and can be slippery with salt water or mud, and the rim path at Moray has slopes and steps. Trainers or light walking shoes are ideal; leave sandals for another day.
- Protect yourself from the sun. At this altitude the sun is strong all year, and the white salt reflects it back at you. Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses are essential, even on a cloudy morning.
- Dress in layers. The plateau can be cold and windy early on and warm by midday. A light warm jacket and a rain jacket in the rainy months cover everything.
- Carry water and cash. Water for the walk, and soles for salt, snacks and toilets.
- Respect the workers. Ask before taking close-up photos of people working in the pools, and do not touch tools or sacks.
- Pack for the whole day. On our packages you do not go back to Cusco that night, so bring your small overnight backpack for Aguas Calientes.
Frequently asked questions
How far are Maras and Moray from Cusco?
Both are on the plateau between Cusco and the Sacred Valley, roughly an hour and a half by road from Cusco depending on traffic and stops. They are a short drive apart, so they are almost always visited together, often combined with Chinchero and Ollantaytambo.
What is the altitude of Moray and the Maras salt mines?
Moray is at about 3,500 m (11,480 ft), almost the same as Cusco. The salt mines lie lower, in a ravine that falls towards the Sacred Valley, at around 3,000 to 3,300 m (9,840 to 10,830 ft).
Is Moray included in the Cusco tourist ticket?
Yes. Moray is covered by the full Boleto Turístico del Cusco and by the Circuit III partial ticket for the Sacred Valley. The Maras salt mines are not: they have a separate entrance collected by the local community. On our packages both entrances are included.
What was Moray used for?
Nobody knows for certain. The most widely accepted theory is that the Incas used its circular terraces, where temperature and humidity change from the rim to the bottom, as an agricultural laboratory to adapt crops to different altitudes. Other researchers suggest ceremonial or astronomical uses, or a mix of both.
When is the best time to see the Maras salt mines?
In the dry season, May to September, when the salt is harvested and the pools look whitest. In the rainy months, roughly December to March, production slows and the pools can look brown and muddy.
Can I walk on the salt pans at Maras?
Only on the paths the community opens to visitors. The pools are privately worked by local families, so you should not step into them or onto their walls. Follow your guide and the signs, and wear shoes with good grip.
Official sources: Ministry of Culture of Peru · COSITUC: the official Cusco Tourist Ticket (Boleto Turístico del Cusco) · El Peruano: the Sacred Valley salt pans kept by the communities of Maras and Pichingoto (Spanish)
