#889 Cape Horn, Chile

Did you know that Cape of Horn is on an island, not actually on the continent of South America? The islands of the steep mist-covered cliffs that mark the southern-most land of the area are part of the Cape Horn National Park (Parque Nacional Cabo de Hornos) at 56 degrees south, and are about as remote, even within Chile, as you can get anywhere in the world and still be a short sail away from civilization. Actually, I just discovered that the Diego Ramirez Islands are further south, but are already in the Drake Passage so not as famous! Infamous because of the rough waters, icebergs, strong winds and currents of the nearby Drake Passage, it is something ships dreaded for centuries. It was only with the opening of the Panama Canal (#920) that the passage around South America was no longer necessary, although many ships used the straights of Magellan rather than go around the tip of Tierra del Fuego anyway, because it was so difficult.

It was named after Hoorn in the Netherlands and translates to the Cape of Ovens. The Chilean navy maintains a station on island including a lighthouse.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn

Sewell Mining Town Chile

Sewell Mining Town is situated at 2,000 m in the Andes, 60 km to the east of Rancagua, in an environment marked by extremes of climate, Sewell Mining Town was built by the Braden Copper company in 1905 to house workers at what was to become the world's largest underground copper mine, El Teniente. It is an outstanding example of the company towns that were born in many remote parts of the world from the fusion of local labour and resources from an industrialized nation, to mine and process high-value natural resources. The town was built on a terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles around a large central staircase rising from the railway station. Along its route formal squares of irregular shape with ornamental trees and plants constituted the main public spaces or squares of the town. The buildings lining the streets are timber, often painted in vivid green, yellow, red and blue. At its peak Sewell numbered 15,000 inhabitants, but was largely abandoned in the 1970s.

Continent: South America

Country: Chile

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (II)

Date of Inscription: 2006

Copper Mine

The existence of the el Teniente copper deposits seems to have been known and mined in pre-Hispanic times. During the 15th - 17th centuries, raw materials were exported by the Spanish and then for two hundred years there was little activity. In 1897 the then owner of the mining rights initiated a survey of the copper seams in the area. On discovering the huge potential of the site, and the fact that extracting the copper would require great investment, an approach was made in 1903 to the North American mining engineer William Braden who had taken part in the Great Exhibition in Santiago in 1894.

Chile Sewell Mining Town

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Braden Copper Company

Braden arrived in Chile the following year, 1904, and begun acquiring the property. Almost immediately a road was constructed to the nearest railway line at Rancagua. Braden joined forces with E W Nash, President of the American Smelting and Refining Company and with Barton Sewell, the founder and Vice-President, they created the Braden Copper Company.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Chile. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works Chile

Humberstone and Santa Laura works contain over 200 former saltpeter works where workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in company towns and forged a distinctive communal pampinos culture. That culture is manifest in their rich language, creativity, and solidarity, and, above all, in their pioneering struggle for social justice, which had a profound impact on social history. Situated in the remote Pampas, one of the driest deserts on Earth, thousands of pampinos lived and worked in this hostile environment for over 60 years, from 1880, to process the largest deposit of saltpeter in the world, producing the fertilizer sodium nitrate that was to transform agricultural lands in North and South America, and in Europe, and produce great wealth for Chile.

Continent: South America

Country: Chile

Category: Danger

Criterion: (II) (III) (IV)

Date of Inscription: 2005

Huge cultural exchange complex

The development of the saltpeter industry reflects the combined knowledge, skills, technology, and financial investment of a diverse community of people who were brought together from around South America, and from Europe. The saltpeter industry became a huge cultural exchange complex where ideas were quickly absorbed and exploited. The two works represent this process.

Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Largest producers of natural saltpeter

The saltpeter mines and their associated company towns developed into an extensive and very distinct urban community with its own language, organisation, customs, and creative expressions, as well as displaying technical entrepreneurship. The two nominated works represent this distinctive culture.

The saltpeter mines in the north of Chile together became the largest producers of natural saltpeter in the world, transforming the Pampa and indirectly the agricultural lands that benefited from the fertilisers the works produced. The two works represent this transformation process.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Chile. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

Rapa Nui National Park Chile

Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, bears witness to a unique cultural phenomenon. A society of Polynesian origin that settled there c. A.D. 300 established a powerful, imaginative and original tradition of monumental sculpture and architecture, free from any external influence. From the 10th to the 16th century this society built shrines and erected enormous stone figures known as moai , which created an unrivalled cultural landscape that continues to fascinate people throughout the world. Rapa Nui contains one of the most remarkable cultural phenomena in the world.

Continent: South America

Country: Chile

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (I) (III) (V)

Date of Inscription: 1995

Unparalleled cultural landscape

An artistic and architectural tradition of great power and imagination was developed by a society completely isolated from external cultural influences of any kind for over a millennium. The substantial remains of this culture blend with their natural surroundings to create an unparalleled cultural landscape.

Moai Stone Figures

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

High cultural level

The island was settled around AD 300 by Polynesians, probably from the Marquesas, who brought with them a wholly Stone Age society. All the cultural elements in Rapa Nui before the arrival of Europeans indicate that there were no other incoming groups. Between the 10th and 16th centuries the island community expanded steadily, settlements being set up along practically the entire coastline.

The high cultural level of this society is best known from its monumental stone figures (moai ) and ceremonial shrines (ahu ); it is also noteworthy for a form of pictographic writing (rongo rongo ), so far undeciphered.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Chile. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

ESO (European Southern Observatory) Hotels

ESO (European Southern Observatory) Hotels is a hotel that is used for ESO scientists and engineers who worked there on the list system.
The hotel is situated at 2400 meters (7900 feet) above sea level on Cerro Paranal. The people who work in extreme climatic conditions including intense sunlight, drought, high winds and huge fluctuations in temperature in desperate need of a room that can soothe and restore their stamina, because that's built a hotel where they can relax between shifts , namely a 'Hotel' which has 120 rooms and other public spaces, such as cafeteria, lounge, swimming pool, fitness center and library.
The building is one of the buildings including the very useful and best in the world.

Mano de Desierto

Mano de Desierto is a statue as high as 11 meters with a very unique shape, namely a very large hand-shaped. The statue is located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, 75 km to the south of the city of Antofagasta, on the Panamerican Highway.

The statue was built by Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level, with a combination of iron and cement. The statue was financed by the Corporacion Pro Antofagasta, a local booster organization, and was inaugurated on March 28, 1992.