TerravelTerravel · Places · South America
Chile · South America
Atacama Desert
Where the Andes meet the Pacific, one of Earth's driest places stretches endlessly—a vast, austere canvas of mineral and silence.
The Atacama Desert sprawls across northern Chile's Pacific coast, a 1,600-kilometre ribbon of barrenness wedged between the ocean and the Andes. This plateau encompasses 105,000 square kilometres of unrelenting aridity, expanding to 128,000 when its barren lower mountain slopes are counted—a landscape so spare it seems almost unreal.
Here, in one of Earth's most inhospitable regions, the land has surrendered almost entirely to dryness. The desert's extreme conditions have shaped a geography of profound emptiness, where the boundary between earth and sky dissolves into an endless horizon of stone, salt, and dust.
Some parts of the Atacama have never received measurable rainfall in recorded history, making it one of the driest places on Earth.
Test yourself
Which South American place has never recorded measurable rainfall in some areas throughout recorded history?
The Atacama Desert in Chile is one of Earth's driest regions, with parts that have never received measurable rainfall in recorded history—a distinction that does not apply to the Paraná River (a major waterway), Colca Canyon (which receives seasonal precipitation), or Rocas Atoll (surrounded by ocean).
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Atacama Desert is one of 266 places in Terravel. A new one every morning.
