THE DESERT

'Towards Atacama, near the deserted coast, you see a land without men, where there is not a bird, not a beast, nor a tree, nor any vegetation'.

  Alonso de Ercilla, 1569

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The Atacama Desert is found in northern Chile and is a 15 million year old landscape of mountains, salt flats, volcanoes and sand. It sits over a mile above sea level on a plateau between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, with its most mountainous peaks reaching an altitude of almost 7,000 metres.

It is also the driest place on Earth, 100 times more arid than California's Death Valley and with average rainfall in many areas of just 1mm per year. In fact it is believed that some river beds have been dry for over 120,000 years and some weather stations have never recorded a drop of rain since records began.

The unique landscape is the closest thing on this planet to the surface of the moon and NASA use the desert to train their astronaughts and test equipment designed for use on Mars.

The dryness of the desert and abundance of natural mineral resources also provides a perfect environment for preservation. Some of the oldest mummies on Earth have been found in the Atacama, one over 9000 years old!