#whitesark

 Over 1,000 km long and caught between the Pacific and the Andes this harsh and arid land is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The days can be scorching hot and the nights freezing, precipitation levels are so low that no rain ever recorded in some areas. It may not sound like an enticing place to visit, but a country with such extremes can not fail to impress. The absence of life and wind-carved rocks provide many of the landscape an eerie Martian or lunar appearance. NASA has also used to test their autonomous vehicle for the exploration of other planets. It is also unlikely setting for a wealth of human history and culture. Museum in San Pedro has a fine collection of artifacts and extraordinarily well-preserved mummies from indigenous cultures. Recent studies have discovered that the ancient peoples of this region using sophisticated methods to Mummify their dead long before the Egyptians. The Incas also left their mark on the Atacama desert, and even climbed some of the 6000m peaks, where the sacrificial burial sites have been found. In the nineteenth century the British, in their pursuit of sodium nitrate, built in the mining towns throughout the region. When the need for these nitrates disappeared overnight towns were abandoned and became ghost towns that still stands much as they did then. The list of amazing places in the Atacama go on - there are emerald green lakes, geysers, live volcanoes, geoglyphs on the slopes, a salt desert populated by flamingos, oasis, hot springs and much more.