Only Salt Source

The Source

The Maras salt ponds of Peru are a world wonder, historical treasure, and cultural community tradition.

Founding

Over 600 years ago, thousands of these ponds were built by the ancient Incans to supply the region with salt.

Snow melt and rain from 10,000ft in the mountains run through a subterranean salt deposit that dates back millions of years. This salty, warm spring water exits the Qoripujio Mountain and is diverted to the thousands of ponds on the hillside.

Harvesting

Once per year, the local community harvests the salt by hand using rakes and woven baskets.

The salt can only be harvested during the dry season each year from May to October. The farmers flood their ponds and let the sun naturally evaporate the water, leaving behind only salt crystals - a process that typically takes three months. The crystals are then collected and brought to the community’s storeroom where it is packed and sold around the region.

The Heritage

There are over 3000 salt ponds owned by individual families in the Maras community, passed down from their ancestors.

The ponds have traditionally been passed down from generation to generation, with each family owning around twenty or thirty salt ponds. New members of the community also have a right to a salt pond. They just have to locate an empty pond and let the community know.

Industrialization

For hundreds of years, the hand-harvested salt of Maras supplied the whole region. Today, big salt threatens Maras’ livelihood.

During industrialization in the 1900s, companies began selling chemically refined salt to consumers. The low price and perception that anything machined was higher quality than anything hand-harvested quickly led to the popularity of today's major salt companies. Over the past 80 years, demand for Maras’ salt has been so low that farmers are no longer able to make a living and centuries of tradition are at risk.