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Apparently it was a pre-Inka town with discontinuous later occupation; In this area there are a large quantity of ceramic fragments from the Chanapata culture, as well as scrapers and obsidian knives. The town was founded in the colony by the Spanish Pedro Ortiz de Ouebe, and its important occupation began when the Cuzco nobles from the Inkario were stripped of their palaces in Qosqo and had to go out to settle in other small towns such as San Sebastián and Maras. Likewise, in the war initiated by Manko Inka for the recovery of his Quechua Nation, Maras served as a bastion for the invaders in their incursions against the town of Ollantaytambo occupied by the Inka for 2 years. Many of its houses are emblazoned with noble coats of arms on their stone lintels, which indicates the importance acquired at that time when it was an obligatory place of passage for the muleteers and their mule trains that transported tropical products and especially coca leaves from the high jungle. Cusco to meet the needs of the city of Qosqo and the country. It was declared ´´Villa de San Francisco de Asís de Maras´´ (Villa: city or town that had certain privileges); Back then it was much more important than the town of Urubamba, but today it is a town that languishes as a result of its isolation and the development of modern life. It has a church made of adobe, typical of small-town religious architecture, in whose atrium there is a cross carved in granite; Inside the church there are canvases from the Cusco school representing the Apostles and others, whose author is the Quechua painter Antonio Sinchi Roqa Inka who was a native of Maras and painted with great care for his church; This was a contemporary of Bishop Mollinedo y Angulo, and became famous in the middle of the 17th century.





Maras is a district of the province of Urubamba, where it can be reached through a paved road starting at km. 50 of the Qosqo - Chinchero - Urubamba road; located west of Qosqo at 3300 m.s.n.m. and on a plain that in prehistoric times was a great plateau. From there you can see part of the Urubamba mountain range and the snowy peaks of ´´Weqey Willka´´ (today ´´La Verónica´´, 5682 mts.) And ´´Chikón´´ (5530 mts).



Salineras de Maras

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