Salinas de Maras: It is a bizarre site.
Area located at 60 km. (37 miles) from Cuzco and 7 km (4.3 miles) of Moray,
where layers of beige and white salt pants are still used to crystallize salt
from water. Visit from Sacred Valley of the Incas. |
Moray
Incas Archaeological Complex -
Cuzco
(Photos © Jorge Mazzotti) |
This is a strange place. Area located
at 53 km northwest of Cuzco, highlights an admirable Inca experimental farm,
where a natural depression has been transformed in enormous terraces
superimposed in concentric form with a shape of a great coliseum, achieving
up to 150 meters in difference of height levels. The purpose of these
depressions is uncertain, but their depth and orientation with respect to
wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15 °C (27 °F)
between the top and bottom. This large temperature difference was possibly
used by the Inca to study the effects of different climatic conditions on
crops. In other words, Moray was perhaps an Inca agricultural experiment
station. As with many other Inca sites, it also has a sophisticated
irrigation system.
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