Thousands of small pools cover the hillside near Maras in Peru’s Sacred Valley. From a distance, they look like a patchwork of white, pink and brown rectangles cut into the mountain. Each pool has a simple purpose: to collect salty spring water and allow the sun to turn it into salt. This is the work carried out at the Maras Salt Mines, known locally as Salineras de Maras.
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| A worker carries a sack of salt harvested from the traditional evaporation ponds at Salineras de Maras in Peru’s Sacred Valley. |
The system depends on a natural spring whose water contains a high concentration of dissolved salt. A channel carries the brine down the slope, then divides into smaller waterways that supply the individual ponds. Stone walls separate one pool from another and help hold the water in place. The arrangement is remarkably straightforward. Water moves through the channels by gravity, while the sun does the work of evaporation. A Columbia University field guide to Peru describes the natural spring and geological conditions behind this unusual source of salt.
Harvesting takes place in stages rather than all at once. Workers first clean a pond and fill it with brine to a depth of about five centimetres. After roughly three days in the sun, salt crystals begin to form. More brine is added, and the process is repeated for several weeks. If enough salt is present, the workers then scrape the crystals from the bottom and sort the harvest into various grades. The UNESCO description of the salt-making process documents these traditional methods.
The weather has a direct effect on production. In the dry season (May to October), evaporation is greater, which generally makes it easier to harvest. The rainy months, from November to April, bring more difficulty because water evaporates more slowly and rainfall can affect the ponds. The salt itself is not always the same colour. Depending on conditions and mineral content, it can appear white, pink or brown.
The history of the Maras Salt Mines reaches back well before the Inca Empire. Archaeological evidence points to salt exploitation in the area during the Early Horizon period, between 1000 and 200 BC. However, it would be misleading to describe every surviving pond as a pre-Inca structure. The terraces developed over different periods, with further expansion during Inca and colonial times. The history is therefore longer and more complex than a single episode of Inca construction.
Salt production remains part of everyday life for the neighbouring communities. According to UNESCO, around 400 families from Maras and Pichingoto own wells in the area. Their work relies on knowledge passed down through generations, as well as cooperation between families. This traditional spirit of mutual assistance is known as ayni. The community-owned company Marasal is responsible for administering and commercialising the salt.
First Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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| Rows of traditional salt evaporation ponds cover the mountainside at Salineras de Maras in Peru’s Sacred Valley. |
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| Hundreds of shallow evaporation ponds form the distinctive terraced landscape of the Maras Salt Mines in Peru’s Sacred Valley. |
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| The terraced salt ponds of Salineras de Maras, where naturally salty spring water is evaporated to produce salt. |
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| The distinctive salt ponds of Salineras de Maras, where natural spring water evaporates in shallow pools to produce salt. |
Salt mining takes different forms in various parts of the world. RiteBook has also covered the underground workings of the Bochnia Salt Mine in Poland and the salt mine at Soledar in Ukraine. Unlike those underground mines, Maras depends on an exposed hillside, a natural spring and sunlight.
The Maras Salt Mines are not simply a striking pattern on a Peruvian mountainside. They are a working landscape shaped by geology and generations of local labour. The same basic process continues to produce salt from the spring water, keeping an old community tradition alive in the Sacred Valley.
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