The Sacred Valley of the Incas is a Valley in the Andes of Peru running West to East and include everything along the Urubamba River between the town and Inca ruins at Pisac Westward of Machu Picchu. Pisac lie atop a hill at the entrance to the Valley and the Inca ruins are separated along the ridge into 4 groups: P'isaqa, Inti Watana (Temple of the Sun, Baths, Altars, Water Fountains, Ceremonial Platform, and a volcanic outcrop carved into a hitching post for the Sun), Qalla Qasa (built onto a natural spur that overlooks the Valley, known as the citadel), and Qinchiraqay.
The Sacred Valley has elevations above sea level along the River ranging from 3,000m/9,800ft at Pisac to 2,050m/6,730ft at the Urubamba River below Machu Picchu. On both sides of the River , the mountains rise to much higher elevations, especially to the South where 2 prominent mountains overlook the Valley: Sahuasiray (5,818m/19,088ft) and Veronica (5,680m/18,640ft) in elevation.
The Inca constructed agricultural terraces on the steep hillside, which are still in use today. They created the terraces by hauling richer topsoil by hand from the lower lands enabling the production of food at impossible altitudes. With religious, agricultural, and military structures, the site served a triple purpose. Pisac defended the Southern entrance to the Sacred Valley, while Choquequirao (precious metal) at an elevation of 3,050m/10,010ft defended the Western entrance, and the fortress at Ollantay Tambo the Northern entrance. The controlled Pisac Inca route connected the empire with the border of the Rain Forest.
The Sacred Valley's floor today is intensely cultivated for about 1km/0.62ft wide on average. Side Valleys and agricultural terraces (andenes) expand the cultivatable area.
The Sacred Valley was formed by the Urubamba River, also known as the Vilcanota River (House of the Sun). It is fed by numerous tributaries which descend through adjoining Valleys and Gorges.
The Sacred Valley was the most important area for maize production in the heartland of the Inca Empire and access through the Valley to tropical areas facilitated the import of products to Cuzco. Maize uses were developed and became a major staple food along with squash, potato, quinoa, beans, and amaranth. Maize was a prestige crop that formed the highland people's identity. Because it is cold-tolerant, in the temperate zones maize is planted in the spring. Its root system is shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. Maize provided support for beans, and the beans provided nitrogen derived from a bacteria which live in the roots of beans and other legumes using it as host to fix nitrogen because they cannot independently fix it; and squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil. The highlanders make a special fermented and non-fermented maize drink named "chicha,"and it is consumed in large quantities at their many ceremonial feasts and religious festivals. Chichas can also be made from quinoa, kaniwa, peanut, cassava, palm fruit, potato, and various other fruits.
The Inca agricultural terraces at Moray, NorthWest of Cuzco on a High Plateau at about 3,500m / 11,500ft and West of the Village of Maras, contains several terraced circular depressions, the largest of which is 30m/98ft deep, with an irrigation system as with many Inca sites. The purpose of it is uncertain but their depth, design, and orientation with respect to Wind and Sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15*C/27*F between the top and the bottom.
The Town of Maras is well known for its nearby Salt Evaporation Ponds, in use since Inca times. They are 4km North of the Town, down the Canyon that descends to Rio Vilcanota and the Sacred Valley.
Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating Salty Water from a local subterranean stream. The highly salty water emerges at a Spring, a natural outlet of the underground system. The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the Water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds. Almost all the ponds are less than 4 meters square in area, and none exceeds 30 cm in depth. All are necessarily shaped in polygons with the flow of water carefully controlled and monitory by workers. The altitude of the ponds slowly decreases, so that the Water may flow through the myriad branches of the Water-Supply channels and be introduced slowly through a notch in one side wall of each pond. The proper maintenance of the adjacent feeder channel, the side walls and the water-entry notch, the pond's surface, the quantity of water, and the removal of accumulated salt deposits requires close cooperation among the community of users.
It is agreed among local residents and pond workers that the Cooperative System was established during the time of the Incas as a Sacred Duty as a continuity of the labor that previous cultures developed for the same purpose. As Water evaporates from the Sun-Warmed Ponds, the Water becomes supersaturated and Salt precipitates as various size crystals onto the inner surfaces of a pond's earthen walls and on the pond's earthen floor. The pond's keeper then closes the Water-Feeder Notch and allows the pond to go dry. Within a few days the keeper carefully scrapes the Dry Salt from the sides and the bottom, puts it into a suitable vessels, reopens the Water-Supply Notch, and carries away the Salt. The Salt's color varies from white to a light reddish or brownish tan, depending on the skill of an individual worker.
The Salt Mines traditionally have been available to any person wishing to harvest Salt. The owners of the Salt Ponds must be members of the community, and families that are new to the community wishing to propitiate a Salt Pond get the one farthest from the community. The size of the Salt Pond assigned to a family depends on the family size. Usually there are many unused Salt Pools available to be farmed. Any prospective Salt Farmer need only to locate an empty currently unmaintained Pond, consult with the local informal cooperative, learn how to keep a pond properly within the accepted Communal System, and start working, maintaining in this way the sacred ritual practiced by the ancient highlanders in order to keep the holiness of the Sacred Valley.
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