The main viewpoint
A valley of terraces.
User:Ori~ — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Athena Lei Bada — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Caitriana Nicholson from 北京 ~ Beijing, 中国 ~ China — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Magalhães — Public domain · Patrickroque01 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fung360 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Farm terraces covering the mountains of Ifugao in northern Luzon, carved by hand by the ancestors of the Ifugao people on steep slopes about 1,500 metres up, and watered by an ancient irrigation system that gathers water from the forests above. Their owners still grow rice and vegetables on them today. From the main viewpoint north of town you see the whole valley as green terraces stepping down like giant stairs towards the bottom, with houses scattered among them. This view is printed on the back of the Philippine twenty-peso note, so compare the picture with the real thing. The terraces change colour with the rice cycle: flooded and mirroring the sky at planting, green as the rice grows, gold before harvest. Researchers disagree about their age: the popular figure is two thousand years, while recent studies point to about four hundred. The five terrace clusters on UNESCO's list since 1995, Batad among them, are close to Banaue, so make it your base. The mountain road is long and the nights are cold, so bring a jacket.
A valley of terraces.
Water, green, then gold.
Houses among the terraces.
Banaue main viewpoint, about 4 km north of Banaue town, Ifugao; about nine hours by bus from Manila
The listed terraces are five clusters in Ifugao, since 1995, including Batad and Bangaan in Banaue municipality. The main viewpoint lies outside them, but it is the most famous and easiest view.