The small town of Banaue, set in the dramatic mountain scenery of the Cordilleras, is a gateway to some of the Philippines’ most spectacular landscapes, its UNESCO World Heritage-listed ancient rice terraces. The terraces, some of which date back 2,000 years, were carved, mostly using hand tools, by the ancestors of the Ifugao community who also made use of a sophisticated irrigation system which channelled water from nearby mountaintop forests.

Considered an ‘Eighth Wonder of the Modern World’ by locals and visitors alike, the rice terraces form a living landscape that follows the contours of the mountains and incorporates an intricate network of water channels. The Ifugao people have depended on them for millennia for their supply of rice, the art of maintaining them passed down through the generations orally. Scattered between the terraces, small rural villages, many of which still feature traditional Ifugao houses, are home to locals who still practice old farming techniques and spiritual ceremonies and hold to old superstitions.

The rice terraces are best viewed from the many viewpoints that can be found among them, which look down the hillsides that they snake across. For the active, you can also follow winding pathways and steep staircases among the paddy fields, and much more visceral way to experience them.