Salineras de Maras

Ancient salt pans in the mountains

A fascinating place: the salinas de Maras. There must be thousands of salt pans in which the water evaporates leaving back pure salt.

There are many similar sites around the world, - but usually located at the seaside (e.g. the salt pans I photographed on Gozo)!
The salinas of Maras however are located at an altitude of almost 4000 meters and very far from the coast.
They were built by the Incas, who used the water from a salt spring instead of sea water.

In the late afternoon sun, the water in the pans looks like liquid gold.