马拉斯盐田，秘鲁 Salt ponds of Maras in Peru's Sacred Valley of the Incas (© Fotofeeling/Westend61 on Offset/Shutterstock)

马拉斯盐田，秘鲁 Salt ponds of Maras in Peru's Sacred Valley of the Incas (© Fotofeeling/Westend61 on Offset/Shutterstock)

巧夺天工的印加智慧 Incan ingenuity

Salt ponds of Maras, Peru

Peru's spectacularly beautiful Cuzco region has plenty of Incan wonders waiting to be rediscovered. Take, for example, these ancient salt ponds, stepping their way down the mountainside in Maras, nestled in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. You'll find more than 6,000 of the little salt pans near Maras, many of them owned and mined by local families. Salt is still harvested from the ponds through evaporation, just as it was in the 1400s when the Inca created the pools. Production is—pun sort of intended—seasonal. From May to October output is greater and of higher quality, and you'll see crystallized salt with its subtle pink hue. Maras salt is prized for its flavor and rough texture, and people swear by its healthy properties, too. The salt is sold in markets, and of course visitors are encouraged to take samples back home with them.

It's not far from Maras to Moray, another location where Incan ingenuity is on display. This time it's in the form of grass-covered stone rings believed to have been test beds for crop experimentation. The soil is from a few areas in the region, and studies show that the rings were designed to create microclimates to see what worked best for different plants.

秘鲁马拉斯的盐池

秘鲁美丽的库斯科地区有许多印加奇观等待重新发现。举个例子，这些古老的盐池坐落在神圣的印加山谷中，沿着马拉斯的山坡往下走。你会在马拉斯附近发现6000多个小盐田，其中许多是当地家庭拥有和开采的。盐仍然是通过蒸发从池塘中获取的，就像14世纪印加人创造池塘时一样。生产是双关语，有点季节性的。从5月到10月，产量更大，质量更高，你会看到结晶盐带有淡淡的粉红色。玛拉盐因其风味和粗糙的质地而备受赞誉，人们也对其健康特性深信不疑。食盐在市场上出售，当然也鼓励游客带着食盐回家。

从马拉斯到马里不远，这是印加的另一个创意展示地。这一次，它以草覆盖的石环的形式出现，据信石环是作物试验的试验台。土壤来自该地区的几个地区，研究表明，这些环是为了创造小气候，以观察什么对不同的植物最有效。