Sacred Valley

Why Sacred Valley works

The Sacred Valley of the Incas follows the Urubamba River northwest from Cusco, its floor and terraced slopes still farmed much as they were 500 years ago, corn and potatoes grown on the same stone-walled andenes the Incas engineered for altitude-adjusted microclimates. Moray, the valley's most photographed agricultural site, consists of concentric circular terraces descending into a natural depression — long theorised as an Inca crop-testing laboratory, since temperature can vary by several degrees between the top and bottom rings. A short drive away, the Salineras de Maras cascade down a hillside in thousands of small pale-pink pools, salt evaporation pans fed by a subterranean spring and still worked by local families using techniques essentially unchanged since pre-Inca times. Ollantaytambo, at the valley's western edge, is both a still-inhabited Inca town — its narrow water-channelled streets laid out on the original grid — and a formidable terraced fortress that was one of the few sites where the Inca successfully repelled a Spanish assault, in 1537. Pisac's Sunday market draws vendors from surrounding highland villages selling textiles and produce beneath its own set of Inca ruins terracing the mountainside above town. Most Machu Picchu-bound travellers pass through the valley by train without stopping, but a full day exploring Moray, Maras, and Ollantaytambo — ideally with an overnight in the valley itself, at a lower altitude than Cusco — adds essential context to the more famous ruins still to come.

Trip Snapshot

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