Top 10 Most Interesting Facts About Chile
Here is the collection of Top 10 Most Amazing Facts About Chile :-
1. Chile is the world's narrowest country
Chile is the world’s longest and narrowest country. It is part of the South American countries found along a strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It extends over 2,600 miles north to south and it is about 217 miles wide. It is a long north to south country and is the narrowest country from east to west if only the mainland territory is considered. The country encompasses a variety of landscapes and climate which makes it one of the most naturally diverse countries in the world. Its landscapes stretches from the driest desert in the world to ancient glaciers. Chile borders Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and the Drake Passage. Its territory includes several Pacific Islands including Easter Island, Juan Fernandez, and Desventuradas.
2. The oldest mummies in the world are from Chile
The Chinchorro mummies are mummified remains of individuals from the South American Chinchorro culture, found in what is now northern Chile. The Chinchorro people settled in coastal bays of the Atacama Desert, in what is present-day Chile, around 7,000 BC. Chinchorro was a fishing community who lived in what is now Chile and Southern Peru from 5,000 BC to 500 BC. They developed a technique for mummification around 5,000 BC. That's roughly 2,000 years before the ancient Egyptians. The oldest naturally mummified corpse recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BCE. The Chinchorro's methods and approach to mummification differed markedly from that of the Egyptians. Chinchorro mummified men, women, children, babies and even foetuses regardless of their status.
They carefully prepared their dead by removing skin and organs and filling out the bodies with animal skins or clay and reeds. The Chinchorro people would then stuff the body with natural fibres and sticks to keep it straight before using reeds to sew the skin back on. They would also attach thick black hair onto the mummy's head and cover its face with clay and a mask with openings for the eyes and mouth. Finally, the body was painted in a distinctive red or black colour using pigments from minerals, ochre, manganese and iron oxide.
3. Chile has around 2,900 volcanoes.
There are 2,000 volcanoes in Chile, more than 500 of which are potentially active. Chile has the world's second most active string of volcanoes after Indonesia. Around 60 volcanoes in Chile have been recorded to have erupted over the past 450 years, and around 40 could begin to do so in the future. The country is home to two of Latin America's most active volcanoes: Villarica and Llaima.
4. Many consider Chile to be the world capital of astronomy.
With 70% of the world’s telescopes, Chile truly is the world capital of astronomy. Chile is an astronomer’s paradise. It is home to some of the finest places on Earth to enjoy the beauty of the starry sky. Chile’s northern coast offers an ideal star-gazing environment with its lack of precipitation, clear skies and low-to-zero light pollution. In the Atacama desert region of northern Chile, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days of the year. These conditions have attracted the world's scientific community to develop highly ambitious astronomical projects in the Atacama desert. Chile would contain more than 50% of the global astronomical infrastructure by 2030.
5. The driest place on Earth
Chile is the world’s longest and narrowest country. It is part of the South American countries found along a strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It extends over 2,600 miles north to south and it is about 217 miles wide. It is a long north to south country and is the narrowest country from east to west if only the mainland territory is considered. The country encompasses a variety of landscapes and climate which makes it one of the most naturally diverse countries in the world. Its landscapes stretches from the driest desert in the world to ancient glaciers. Chile borders Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and the Drake Passage. Its territory includes several Pacific Islands including Easter Island, Juan Fernandez, and Desventuradas.
2. The oldest mummies in the world are from Chile
The Chinchorro mummies are mummified remains of individuals from the South American Chinchorro culture, found in what is now northern Chile. The Chinchorro people settled in coastal bays of the Atacama Desert, in what is present-day Chile, around 7,000 BC. Chinchorro was a fishing community who lived in what is now Chile and Southern Peru from 5,000 BC to 500 BC. They developed a technique for mummification around 5,000 BC. That's roughly 2,000 years before the ancient Egyptians. The oldest naturally mummified corpse recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BCE. The Chinchorro's methods and approach to mummification differed markedly from that of the Egyptians. Chinchorro mummified men, women, children, babies and even foetuses regardless of their status.
They carefully prepared their dead by removing skin and organs and filling out the bodies with animal skins or clay and reeds. The Chinchorro people would then stuff the body with natural fibres and sticks to keep it straight before using reeds to sew the skin back on. They would also attach thick black hair onto the mummy's head and cover its face with clay and a mask with openings for the eyes and mouth. Finally, the body was painted in a distinctive red or black colour using pigments from minerals, ochre, manganese and iron oxide.
3. Chile has around 2,900 volcanoes.
There are 2,000 volcanoes in Chile, more than 500 of which are potentially active. Chile has the world's second most active string of volcanoes after Indonesia. Around 60 volcanoes in Chile have been recorded to have erupted over the past 450 years, and around 40 could begin to do so in the future. The country is home to two of Latin America's most active volcanoes: Villarica and Llaima.
4. Many consider Chile to be the world capital of astronomy.
With 70% of the world’s telescopes, Chile truly is the world capital of astronomy. Chile is an astronomer’s paradise. It is home to some of the finest places on Earth to enjoy the beauty of the starry sky. Chile’s northern coast offers an ideal star-gazing environment with its lack of precipitation, clear skies and low-to-zero light pollution. In the Atacama desert region of northern Chile, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days of the year. These conditions have attracted the world's scientific community to develop highly ambitious astronomical projects in the Atacama desert. Chile would contain more than 50% of the global astronomical infrastructure by 2030.
5. The driest place on Earth
The Atacama Desert is a strip of land on the Chilean coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The desert plateau is 990 miles long. It is the only true desert to receive less rain than the polar deserts. Its annual rainfall is only 0.03 inches. The landscape is so arid, that NASA's astrobiologists travel to the Atacama Desert hoping it will lead them to clues about life on other planets. Rumor has it that Atacama's Calama City didn't see any rain for 400 years until a sudden storm came in 1972.
The Atacama is also the oldest desert in the world. It has experienced semiarid conditions for about 150 million years. The Atacama Desert is located in a zone called the “shadow of rain”. This is determined by its geographical location between the Andes mountain range, which blocks the humid air of the Amazons, and the Coastal mountain range, which interjects between the air currents that come from the Pacific Ocean. Basically, there is an absence of rains and high evaporation. These natural, complex, and dynamic factors make the Atacama Desert an incredibly dry place.
6. The Gran Torre Santiago is the tallest building in South America
The Costanera Center Torre 2, better known as Gran Torre Santiago is a 64 story tall skyscraper in Santiago, Chile, the tallest in Latin America. In 2011 it became the tallest building in South America, and in 2012 the tallest in Latin America. The structural engineering is performed by the Chilean company René Lagos y Asociados Ing. Civiles Ltda, and Salfa Corp. was responsible for its construction. It rises 64 floors above ground, there are 6 basement floors, which makes the building actually 70 stories high. The tower has nearly 700,000 square meters of building space available built on 47,000 square meters of land.
7. World’s biggest swimming pool
San Alfonso del Mar is a resort located in Algarrobo, Chile, that holds the Guinness world record for the world’s largest pool. Crystal Lagoons is built at the cost of $3.5 million. Apparently the pool is spread over 20 acres of land. The pool is 1,013 m long covering containing some 250 million litres of seawater, with a maximum depth of 3.5 m. The water is pumped from the adjacent Pacific Ocean, then filtered and treated. Access to the pool is limited to resort residents only.
8. The world's best wines are in Chile
Chile has always made good wines, and sold them at great prices. One might even compare the style to something similar to French wine. Consumers can pick up a Chilean wine of any stripe and feel confident that the wine will be tasty, varietally typical and reliably affordable. Chile produces wines that are both fruit-forward factor and herbaceous. For most consumers, Chilean wines are well made and reasonably priced, a positive combination that helps sales. Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely planted grape variety in Chile.
9. The world's most powerful earthquake happened in Chile
On May 22, 1960, the most powerful earthquake in recorded history. The earthquake hit at 3:11 PM approximately 160 km off the coast of Chile. The earthquake hit southern Chile with a magnitude between 9.4 and 9.6, killing up to 6,000 people. The Valdivia earthquake left two million people homeless. The earthquake triggered a massiv tsunami that raced across the Pacific. Waves wracked coastal communities as far away as New Zealand, Japan, and the Philippines. The rupture zone stretched from estimates ranging from 500 kilometers to almost 1,000 kilometers along the country’s coast. The economic damage totaled $550 million. A series of foreshocks the previous day had warned of the incipient disaster; one, of magnitude 8.1, caused major destruction in Concepción.
10. The Chilean accent is one of the hardest accents to understand
Chilean Spanish is the hardest Spanish to learn. If you can understand Chilean Spanish, you can understand anything in the language. Chilean Spanish is different from the Spanish you learn in class. Even native Spanish speakers have trouble understanding Chileans. Chilean Spanish dialects have distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usages that differ from those of Standard Spanish. Chile is often cited as one of the most difficult dialects of Spanish, with its rapid, fluid speaking style. The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes 2,214 words and idioms exclusively or mainly produced in Chilean Spanish, in addition to many still unrecognized slang expressions.
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