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Salineras de Maras

Salineras de Maras (Sacred Valley of The Incas) 20221126

 

The Sacred Valley of the Incas is a territory full of incredible landscapes and unique archaeological sites. One of the most visited are the famous Salineras de Maras.

The Salineras de Maras is made up of more than 3,000 natural salt wells near the town of Maras. Each of the wells has a dimension of 5 square meters.

These pools are fed by a hypersaline underground spring that originated 110 million years ago during the formation of the Andes Mountains.

The people of Maras commercialize this salt, just as the Incas did hundreds of years ago.

 

Legend has it that the salty waters that flow from the mountain are the tears of Ayar Cachi. Within Inca mythology, this was one of the 4 brothers and sisters that originated the great empire of the Incas: The God Wiracocha made these brothers come out of a cave to found a great empire. Ayar Cachi threw a stone at a mountain forming a ravine. Then his brothers, fearing his strength and power, locked him up in the cave with deception, preventing him from being the founder of the empire. The tears of this character formed the pools that the sun dried later, forming the salt flats.

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Uploaded on February 1, 2023
Taken on November 26, 2022