Antofagasta
It's a mix of stories about mining towns in the middle of the desert.
The city awaits you with clear starry skies and beaches that are perfect for the family and sports. Travel through history, exploring the corners and mysteries of the saltpeter offices. These old villages, whose boom happened at the turn of the last century have become actual “ghost towns”.
Enjoy the clear skies of the Atacama Desert to see the stars at the best astronomical observatories of the country.
Visit the beaches close to town, with white sands and calm waters. If you love surfing or bodyboarding, don’t despair, there are also waves to test out your skills!
The city awaits you with clear starry skies and beaches that are perfect for the family and sports. Travel through history, exploring the corners and mysteries of the saltpeter offices. These old villages, whose boom happened at the turn of the last century have become actual “ghost towns”.
Enjoy the clear skies of the Atacama Desert to see the stars at the best astronomical observatories of the country.
Visit the beaches close to town, with white sands and calm waters. If you love surfing or bodyboarding, don’t despair, there are also waves to test out your skills!
Panoramic view of Antofagasta City
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La Portada de Antofagasta (The Gateway)
It's a natural arch on the coast of Chile, 18 km (11 mi) north of Antofagasta. It's one of fifteen natural monuments included among the protected areas of Chile. |
Panoramic view of La Portada.
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Antofagasta is a port city and regional capital in a mining area in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. It's known for its copper production. North of the city on the Pacific coast is the Monumento Natural La Portada. This huge natural arch just offshore is home to gulls, pelicans and sometimes seals and dolphins
The beatifuls cliffs in La Portada, formed by the erosion of the Pacific Ocean.
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Balneario Municipal de Antofagasta
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Chuquicamata
It's the world's largest open pit copper mine, opened in 1882, it is located 134 miles northeast of Antofagasta. Its depth of 850 metres (2,790 ft) makes it the second deepest open-pit mine in the world (after Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, United States). |
Sunset in La Portada
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"La Mano del Desierto"
75 kilometers south of the city of Antofagasta, you will find La Mano del Desierto (Hand in the Desert), an impressive 11-meter sculpture created by the Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal, built in 1992 at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level. |
Mario Irarrázabal uses the human figure to express emotions such as loneliness, injustice, impotence, pain and torture.
Its exaggerated size which is said to emphasize human vulnerability and impotence. The work has a base of iron and cement. |
Huanchaca Ruins Museum
Located in the center of the Huanchaca Cultural Park, the musem has collections that cover different thematics, including the formation of the earth, how man related to minerals and how the latter looks at the universe discovering new constellations. It also has collections of rocks, minerals and marine fossils.
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Paranal Observatory
It's an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO); it is located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at 2,635 m (8,645 ft) altitude, 120 km (70 mi) south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, it is the largest optical-infrared observatory in the Southern Hemisphere; worldwide, it is second to the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii.
Also the Residencia hotel (Paranal's hotel) served as a backdrop for part of the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace. |
The Very Large Telescope (VLT)
Consists of four 8.2-metre telescopes operating in the visible and infrared. These telescopes, along with four smaller auxiliary telescopes, are also combined to operate as an optical interferometer on certain nights of the year. All of the 8.2-metre telescopes have adaptive optics and a full suite of instruments.
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