Cusco, Peru: Sacred Valley Exploration in Chinchero, Maras, and Moray with Lunch. At the designated time, get ready to meet your guide for a day of exploration through the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Chinchero, a traditional Cusco urban center located at an elevated point with a beautiful view of the valley. The inhabitants of this area preserve the artisan traditions and the inherited knowledge of the Incas and display them in their clothes and customs. In Chinchero there are also archaeological remains and a beautiful seventeenth-century church, one of the first Catholic buildings in Peru.

The salt mines of Maras are located on an open hill in the Urubamba Valley. While in Maras you will learn about the impressive process created by Incas, where a subterranean stream evaporates salty water and it emerges at a spring. The flow is then directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds. The water, which is exposed to the sun, leaves salt on the land.

Your visit will continue to the agricultural terraces of Moray, which are made up of three coliseums thought to have been used by the Incas as a sort of open air crop laboratory. The coliseums consist of several enormous terraced circular depressions, the largest of which is about 30 meters (98 feet) deep. Admire these terraces which are arranged in concentric circles and are reminiscent of an ancient Greek theater. The Sacred Valley of the Incas has extensive fertile lands perfect for cultivation, as well as impressive archaeological sites. This place will show us the lifestyle of the Inca Empire and its advanced construction techniques.

After lunch at a local restaurant, you will be transferred to your hotel.