Touring Tuesday - Moray Terraces of the Incas

Biking above the Moray Terraces of the Incas

If you happen to find yourself in the Peruvian city of Cuzco (capital of the Inca Empire) with a little time on your hands, you might want to take a mountain bike ride to the Moray Agricultural Terraces. It is not known why the Incas built these bowl shaped terraced fields, but the most popular theory is that it was an agricultural research site. The temperatures from top to bottom in the bowls vary as much as 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the Incas lived at elevations from sea level to more than 2 miles high, this allowed them to simulate many of those climates. The Incas grew many crops, but the major ones were corn, potatoes and quinoa. Corn could be grown up to around 10,000 feet, while potatoes and quinoa were grown up to 13,000 feet.

For more information, check out this review on TripAdvisor. One suggestion the reviewer makes is to make sure you are acclimatized to the altitude before doing the ride.