Aerial Salt Ponds of Maras in the Andes

Drone-shot aerial view of the Salinas de Maras in the Sacred Valley near Urubamba, Peru, at golden hour. A vast grid of rectangular salt ponds cascades down the hillside, with pools ranging from deep turquoise to pale blue, edged by glistening white salt crusts. Narrow earthen walls and wooden channels weave between terraces, carrying brine from pond to pond for solar evaporation. The distant snow-capped Andes loom under a clear sky, casting dramatic long shadows. In the foreground, a few local workers in simple woven ponchos harvest salt with wooden shovels and baskets, adding human scale and traditional mining technique to the scene. The image should be ultra-detailed, hyperrealistic, 8K resolution, with crisp textures of salt crystals, aged wood, and stone, capturing cultural heritage and the rugged beauty of the Andes.