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Maras is located off the main road from Cuzco to Urubamba. This is a sleepy town with an interesting history but what is most important are the nearby "salt works", referred to by some as the "salt mines".

This is a collection of some 3000 small pools, each about 53 square feet, constructed in a slope of the 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.  This practice dates back to the Pre-Inca times and the area is particularly photographic.