How much do you know about the 15 most beautiful wonders of Latin America?
The picture shows the Ecuadorian Amazon resort
"Lungs of the Earth": the Amazon jungle
The Amazon rainforest, home to the largest tropical rainforest and the richest rivers on Earth, covers about 40% of the continent and is the largest green space on Earth. It also spans eight countries: Brazil (which covers 60% of the forest), Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, French Guiana and Suriname, four of which named the rainforest state Amazonas. With an area of more than 5 million square kilometers, the Amazon jungle is the largest habitat of flora and fauna on land, and the Amazon rainforest accounts for half of the world's rainforest area, covering 21% of the forest area, and is a treasure of the world.
"Mirror of the Sky": Salar Uyuni
Located in the Andes Mountains in southwestern Bolivia, the Salar de Uyuni was formed when the Andes Mountains were uplifted and is the largest salt marsh in the world. It has enough salt for all mankind to eat for thousands of years, and the salt layer here is more than 6 meters thick in many places, with a total reserve of about tens of billions of tons; But Uyuni's most valuable thing is its lithium mines, which account for almost half of the world's lithium reserves.
The Salar de Uyuni is not only a natural beauty of the extreme, but also a paradise for many rare flora and fauna. Thousand-year-old cacti, rare hummingbirds, and pink flamingos add life to the Salar de Uyuni. No plants grow there except for some cacti. Each lake varies in color and structure, with brick red, green, turquoise or silvery-gray depending on the minerals contained in the salt.
"Liquid rainbow": five-color river
Between the Andes and the Amazon is the tropical plain of central Colombia, home to millions of cattle, seasonally flooded grasslands... THERE'S ALSO THE WORLD'S MOST STRIKING RIVER, THE CAÑO CRISTALES RIVER, WHERE MOSS, AQUATIC PLANTS AND THE ENDEMIC AQUATIC RED PLANT MACARENIACLAVIGERA GROW LUSHLY FROM JULY TO NOVEMBER EACH YEAR DURING THE RAINY SEASON, COVERING AN AREA OF ABOUT 62 MILES. Because the bed of the Caño Cristales River is rich in sediment, the geological rock formation is about 1 billion years old, plus different plants, showing rich color changes.
"Thundering Void": Iguazu Falls
Iguazu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratasdo Iguaçu, Spanish: Cataratasdo Iguazú, local Guarani meaning "big water"). It is not an ordinary waterfall, but more than 275 large and small waterfalls that cross the jungle of Brazil's southern border and Argentina's northern border to form the world's largest waterfall system. Together with Victoria Falls in Africa and Niagara Falls between the United States and Canada, it is called the "three major waterfalls in the world".
It is a very special place: thousands of years before it was discovered by Europeans, the waterfall was a sacred burial place for the Tupi-Guarani ethnic group. The Spaniard Álvaro Núñez discovered them in 1541 and named them Saltos de Santa María, but since the name was not accepted, the original place name remained: Iguazú (Great Water). In 1986, they were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and selected as one of the New Seven Natural Wonders in 2011.
"Tortoise Islands": Galapagos Islands
Colón Islands (Archipiélago de Colón, Spanish: Islas Galapagos): The Galapagos Islands. Located in the Pacific Ocean 1,000 kilometers west of the South American continent, the archipelago covers an area of more than 7,500 square kilometers and consists of 13 small islands and 19 rocks solidified by lava from submarine volcanic eruptions.
The archipelago's diverse climate and the special natural environment of volcanic landscapes allow animals and plants with different habits to grow and multiply on the land at the same time. It is known as the "Living Museum of Biological Evolution" with exotic flowers and plants, rare birds and monsters. The archipelago is home to a variety of organisms that are rare in other areas.
The famous biologist Charles Darwin visited here in 1835, prompting him to propose the famous theory of biological evolution. In 1978, the Galapagos Islands were inscribed on the World Natural Heritage List.
"Navel of the Earth": Easter Island
Easter Island is an island in the South Pacific Ocean, located about 3,600 to 3,700 km off the coast west of Chile, one of the most isolated islands in the world, and 2,075 km from its nearest settled Pitcairn Islands. It is a special administrative region of the province of Valparaíso in the Valparaíso Region.
Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered this wonderful island on Easter Day 1772, hence the name Easter Island. There are 3 volcanoes on the island, belonging to a volcanic island, and the terrain is barren and arid. Most striking are the more than 800 gigantic stone statues of giants scattered throughout the island: Moai, carved from a single stone with meticulous carvings without any notches. After much research and analysis, the question of how these giants migrated from where they were carved to where they are now remains unanswered.
Easter Island is famous for its numerous giant stone carved moai statues along the waterfront, and in 1995 Rapa Nui National Park (Easter Island) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"City in the Sky": Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu (Inca: MachuPicchu, meaning "ancient mountain"). It is a pre-Columbian (15th century) Inca Empire city ruins located in the eastern Peruvian mountains of southern Peru, 80 kilometers northwest of Cusco, the entire site towers over a ridge 2,430 meters (7,970 feet) above sea level, overlooking the Urubamba Valley.
In contrast to the Mayan civilization, the discovery of the site was not recorded until the late 19th century, as there is no written language record of the Inca civilization. Archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built by Sapa Inca Pachakuti (1438-1472), and due to its unique location, address characteristics, and late discovery (in 1911), Machu Picchu became the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire. It is often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas".
Machu Picchu's architecture is in the classical Inca style with polished masonry walls as pillars. The three well-preserved facilities in the town are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Three Windows. In order to give visitors a better idea of what the city was originally like, most of the buildings have been restored and reconstructed. By 1976, about 30 per cent of Machu Picchu had been restored, and restoration works are still under way. In 1983, the ancient temple of Machu Picchu was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a cultural and natural heritage. In 2007, Machu Picchu was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
"Paradise Waterfall": Angel Falls
Angel Falls (Spanish: Salto Ángel), also translated as Angel Falls, sometimes literal as Angel Falls, but not of etymological origin; Also known as Churunmeru Falls, it is located on the Churen River, a tributary of the Caroni River in the Guiana plateau of the Bolivar state of Venezuela, South America, hiding deep in the dense forests of the highlands of Venezuela and Guyana. Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world, and because the drop is so large, when the water flows from the waterfall, it will spread out into rain before it lands, so there is no waterhole at the bottom of the waterfall, which is one of the rare wonders in the world. The Chullen River flows down from the flat-roofed plateau of Auyan-tepui, 150 m wide with a total drop of 979 m (3,212 ft), bounded by a crystalline rock platform 172 m from the Chorun River Valley, with the waterfall divided into two stages, the longest waterfall 807 m (2,648 ft) high. Angel Falls was featured in the movie Dinosaurs. In the movie "Flying House", "Paradise Waterfall" is also based on this.
"The Lost City": Tikal
Tikal was one of the largest abandoned cities of the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization. It is located in the rainforest of Petén Province, Guatemala.
Tikal was the capital of one of the most powerful states of the ancient Maya period. The monument at Tikal dates back to the 4th century BC, and it reached its peak between about 200 and 900 AD. During this period, the Maya city-states controlled the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, as well as metropolises such as Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico in Central America. There is evidence that Tikal was occupied by Teotihuacan in the 4th century. After the end of the post-classical period, no new monuments appeared in Tikal and the palace burned down. These events, together with the gradual decline of population, led to the abandonment of Tikal at the end of the 10th century, part of the collapse of the Maya civilization during the classical period.
Tikal is the most explored of the lowland Mayan city-states, and it has a long list of rulers, many of whose tombs, monuments, temples, and palaces there were.
Tikal is located in Guatemala's Tikal National Park and became a World Heritage Site in 1979.
"Collapsed glacier": Perito Moreno
The GlaciarPerito Moreno Glacier is a glacier located in the Glacier National Park in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina. It is also a popular tourist destination in Argentine Patagonia.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is located 78 km from El Calafate and is named after the explorer Francisco Moreno, a pioneer in the 19th century who studied the area and made an important contribution to the defense of Argentine territory.
The Moreno Glacier has an ice-forming zone of 250 square kilometers and a length of 30 kilometers, and is one of the 48 glaciers located in the South Patagonia Ice Sheet in the Andes. The ice sheet here is the third largest freshwater reserve in the world. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981.
"Desert of a Thousand Lakes": Lensois Maranise
The National Park of Lençois Maranhenses (Portuguese: Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses) is a national park in Brazil, located in the northeastern state of Maranhão, established on June 2, 1981, covering the 157,000 hectares covering the Barreinhas, Primeracruz and Sant'Amarú sur-Maranhão region.
The vegetation is swallowed up by sand, and for thousands of years, the sea and wind have been constantly eroded here, and the entire sand dunes can cover an area of 800 square kilometers, and the surface temperature of this sandy land can even reach 80 degrees Celsius under the sun. Although the area receives abundant rainfall, there is not much vegetation, making it a rare desert landscape in northern South America.
"Eye of the Sea": Belize Great Blue Hole
The Great Blue Hole, the world's largest underwater cave, is located about 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) off coast of Belize, near Lighthouse Reef. The Great Blue Cave is circular in appearance, about 1,000 feet (304 meters) in diameter and about 400 feet (122 meters) deep.
It is a limestone crater formed at the end of the Ice Age. Two million years ago, cold climates froze water in the Earth's ice caps and glaciers, causing sea levels to drop dramatically. Due to the cross-phase erosion of fresh and seawater, many karst cavities have formed in this calcareous area. The Blue Grotto was also located in a huge cavern, and the porous and loose calcareous dome coincidentally collapsed into a near-perfect circular opening due to gravity and earthquakes, becoming an open shaft. When the ice and snow melt and the sea level rises, the sea water is poured into the shaft, forming a strange blue hole phenomenon embedded in the sea.