Machu Picchu Hot Springs
- Location
- Aguas Calientes, Cusco Region, Peru
- Water type
- iron-rich
- Temperature
- 38 °C
- pH
- 6.3
Water profile
Soothing — neither hot nor cold, perfect balance.
Rich in active gases or metals — a strong mineral character.
Soft water — natural, classic buoyancy.
The Machu Picchu Hot Springs are situated in Aguas Calientes — officially Machu Picchu Pueblo — in the Cusco Region, at the foot of the Urubamba Valley below the famous Inca citadel. Aguas Calientes owes its very existence to the thermal springs that give it its name: the town grew up around these geothermal flows as tourism to the site developed, and the baths have long served as the primary relaxation stop for travellers arriving by train through the Sacred Valley.
The water is iron-rich, at 38 °C with a slightly acidic pH of 6.3, giving it a characteristic reddish-amber tinge and a mild ferrous mineral quality. The combination of warm iron-laden water, the humid cloud forest of the Urubamba gorge rising steeply on all sides, and the proximity to one of the world's most extraordinary archaeological sites makes these baths genuinely unlike any other thermal experience. After a day climbing the ruins, the pools at Aguas Calientes are as much a rite of passage as they are a bath.