The salt-evaporation ponds are four kilometers north of the town, down a canyon that descends to the Rio Vilcanota (as the upper Urubamba River is known) and the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Tourist sites in the area include the colonial church, the nearby Moray Inca ruins, the local salt evaporation ponds, and the surrounding scenery.

Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream.

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.

The proper maintenance of the adjacent feeder channel, the side walls and the water-entry notch, the pond's bottom 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, if not earlier.