Salt Pans of Maras, Peru Postcard

A man carries his harvest of salt in a manta blanket on his back at the salt pans, near Maras, Peru. These terraced salt pans, called Salinas de Maras, are high in the Andes Mountains. The multi-coloured terraced pools stretch down a hillside. Peruvians have been gathering salt from the terraced salt pans near Maras, Peru, since before Inca times. Maras is a town in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of Cusco, in the Cusco Region of Peru. Salty water originating from the Qoripujio spring is carefully channeled into more 3,000 shallow man-made pools. The water evaporates, leaving behind salt, which is harvested by about 600 families in the area. The wide range of colours in these evaporation ponds create a beautiful view, which attracts a lot of tourists.