"They rise up to the heavens... giant steps leading to the sky..."

Legend has it that the Igorot god, Kabunyan/Lumaig used these steps to visit his people on earth. Indeed, the rice terraces carved out of the mountains by Igorot ancestors early in this millennium are simply awesome to behold. Dubbed as the eighth wonder of the world, these rice terraces were built with advance engineering skills and are scientifically, a way of maximizing farm space in the mountainous Cordillera region and environmentally preventing erosion.

Scattered all over the Cordilleras, the most famous of these terraces are found in neighboring Banaue, Ifugao. Sagada has its own terraces - lesser known but equally as spectacular! Whereas the walls of Banaue's terraces are of compacted earth, Sagada's walls are small rocks laboriously piled one on top of the other. One sees the same though... giant steps carved by hand out of whole mountainsides provide for terrific viewing!

SAGADA RICE TERRACES PICTURES: