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A non traditional circuit that in the last years is gaining importance is visiting the Maras town, Moray, the "Salt Works" and Pichingoto; they are visited all together or separately.
Maras is a district of the Urubamba province, possible to be reached through a paved road from kilometer 50 on the road Qosqo - Chinchero - Urubamba.
It is located towards the west of Qosqo at an altitude of 3300 mts. (10824 feet); over a plain that in prehistoric times was a huge plateau, from which it is possible to observe the range of mountains of Urubamba including the snow capped mountains of Weqey Willka (today "La Veronica", 5682 mts., 18641 ft.) and " Chikon" (5530 mts., 18143 ft.). It seems that in Maras there was a pre-Inkan settlement with subsequent discontinued occupation.
The town was founded in colonial times by Pedro Ortiz de Orue, and its important occupation began when the Cusquenian Inkan noblemen were dispossessed of their palaces in Qosqo and had to move settling some other small towns such as San Sebastian and Maras. Likewise, during the war started by Manko Inka willing to recover his Quechua nation, it served as stronghold for invaders that raided against the Ollantaytambo town that was occupied by the Inka during 2 years. Many of its houses are emblazoned with Spanish nobility coats of arms on their lintels, which indicates the importance gained by the town in colonial times. About 7 Kms. (4.3 miles) away southwest from Maras is Moray, a very unique archaeological site in the region. It is possible to reach it by car through the dusty road and the path departing from the town. Those are enormous natural depressions or hollows in the ground surface that Inkas used for constructing irrigated farming terraces around them.
What is surprising is that the difference of average annual temperature between the top and the bottom reaches even about 15°C (59°F) in the main depression that is about 30 mts (100 feet) deep. In those natural formations, nature has created an environment, conditions or micro climates that in modern times people create in greenhouses or hothouses. Moray, because of its climate conditions and many other characteristics, was an important center of domestication, acclimatization and hybridization of wild vegetable species that were modified or adapted for human consumption.
Towards the northwest of the Maras village are the famous " salt works", which are possible to reach walking by the trail or by car through a dusty road that is almost useless in the rainy season. The Maras "salt works" to which some people call "salt mines" are constituted by about 3000 small pools with an average area of 5 m² (53.8 ft²), constructed in a slope of the "Qaqawiñay" mountain. People fill up or "irrigate" the pools during the dry season every 3 days, with salty water emanating from a natural spring located on the top of the complex, so that when water evaporates the salt contained in it will slowly solidify. That process will be carried out approximately during one month until a considerable volume of solid salt is obtained; about 10 cms. (4 inches) high from the floor. That solid salt is beaten thus granulated, then packed in plastic sacks and sent to the region's markets; today that salt began being treated with iodine, thus, its consumption is not harmful.
Going on, from the "salt works" through the trail towards the Northwest and following the small valley one gets to Pichingoto that is located already in the Sacred Inkas' Valley. It is also possible to reach Pichingoto walking from the "Rumichaka" bus stop, about 7 kms. (4.35 miles) away from Urubamba on the road toward Ollantaytambo. Pichingoto is a Quechua community dwelling in the base of the basalt "Qoriq'aqya" Mountain; the houses have facades that are made with sun-dried mud-bricks, but, which entrails are carved in the mountain. They are small caverns or caves inhabited even today by the beginning of the XXI century; although, their occupants are already educated or have some instruction level, they have a small Catholic Chapel and even electricity inside their houses. Some authors suggest that the name comes from "pichinco" (bird), and "q'oto" (goiter).
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