Valle de la Luna in the Atacama Desert, Chile

[별고을]

Valle de la Luna in the Atacama Desert, Chile

Valle de la Luna Landscape.

El Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) is located 13 kilometres (8 mi) west of San Pedro de Atacama, in the north of Chile in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama Desert.

Valle de la Luna, Salt mountain range.

Cordillera de la Sal, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile 

It has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. It has an impressive range of color and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the Moon. There are also dry lakes where the composition of salt makes a white covering layer of the area. It presents diverse saline outcrops which appear like man-made sculptures. There are also a great variety of caverns. When the sun sinks it defines the landscape while the wind blows among the rocks and the sky passes from pink color to purple and finally black.

The Amphitheater.

Amphitheater, Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama, Chil

Valle de la Luna is a part of the Reserva Nacional los Flamencos and was declared a Nature Sanctuary in 1982 for its natural environment and strange lunar landscape, from which its name is derived.  The Atacama desert is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years.  A prototype for a Mars rover was tested there by scientists because of the valley's dry and forbidding terrains.

Big Dune.

Duna Mayor, Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Sunset in the Valley of the Moon.

Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

A landscape resembling a Moon crater

Atacama desert - Luna valey

Valle de la Luna in the Atacama Desert, Chile

The lunar landscape of Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) of the Atacama Desert is in the Cordillera de la Sal. It's a mountain subrange that's part of the larger Domeyko range, which itself rolls up into the Andes—it's like nesting dolls, but with mountains. This region's extreme arid climate and lack of discernible life approximate conditions on Mars. NASA tested the Rover vehicles here, and there are numerous astronomical observatories taking advantage of the altitude and clear skies. Some scientists think Martian life may look a lot like microbial life in the Atacama.

San Pedro de Atacama: Valle de la luna in Chile