Maras Salt Mines: the complete guide
Few sights in the Sacred Valley are as strange and beautiful as the Salineras de Maras — thousands of shallow salt pools spilling down a mountainside like a frozen waterfall of white and pink. They have been worked by hand since long before the Inca, and they remain a living, family-run saltworks to this day.
What the Maras Salt Mines are
High above the Urubamba River, a naturally salty spring emerges from the mountain. For centuries, families channelled that water into shallow terraced pools and let the strong Andean sun do the rest: as the water evaporates, it leaves a crust of salt that is scraped, dried and sold. The result is more than 3,000 pools packed into one hillside, each one owned and tended by a local family of the Maras community.
Why the salt is pink
The colour comes from the minerals carried by the spring and from where each pool sits in the harvest cycle. The first, purest crystals form a pale pink "flor de sal", while deeper layers are whiter or browner. That mineral-rich pink salt is now prized by cooks around the world — and buying a bag at the site supports the families who still do this work entirely by hand.
Visiting: tickets, access and what to bring
The salt mines are managed by the local community and charge a small entrance fee paid in cash, separate from the Boleto Turístico. To protect the fragile pools, you now follow a marked viewpoint path along the rim rather than walking among them — the panorama is still extraordinary. At about 3,380 m the walk is easy, but the sun is fierce and there is little shade, so bring a hat, sunscreen and water (our Cusco packing list covers the essentials). Morning or late-afternoon light makes the terraces glow.
See the Maras & Moray tour
The salt pools and the Inca terraces of Moray in one guided half day.
Maras and Moray together
Maras sits right beside Moray, the Inca's circular agricultural terraces, so the two are almost always visited as a pair on a half-day trip from Cusco. Together they make one of the best-value outings in the region, and they slot neatly into a wider Sacred Valley itinerary on your way toward Machu Picchu.
Frequently asked questions
They are thousands of shallow salt pools terraced into a hillside in the Sacred Valley, fed by a naturally salty spring that has been harvested by local families since before the Inca. As the water evaporates in the sun it leaves behind the prized pink salt of Maras.
No. The salt mines are privately managed by the local community and charge their own small entrance fee, separate from the Cusco tourist ticket. It is paid in cash at the entrance.
To protect the pools, visitors now follow a marked viewpoint path above and along the edge of the salt pans rather than walking down between them. The views over the cascade of white and pink terraces are still spectacular.
The dry season, roughly May to October, is when the pools are actively worked and the salt is brightest. Morning or late afternoon light is best for photographs, and it pairs naturally with a visit to nearby Moray.