San Pedro de Atacama is a pre-Inca town in northern Chile, and a popular tourist destination. Its permanent population as of 2005 was about 1,000. For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
San Pedro de Atacama grew, over centuries, around an oasis in the Atacama desert. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 100 km southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcano. It features a significant archeological museum, the Museo Arqueológico R. P. Gustavo Le Paige, with a large collection of mummies and other relics. Native ruins nearby now attract increasing numbers of tourists interested in learning about pre-Colombian cultures. Tourists also visit for other popular activities including sandboarding and star gazing, with the views of the stars from the Atacama unrivalled across the continent. Oasis in the Libyan part of the Sahara In addition to being a popular band, in geography, an oasis is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. ... The Atacama desert of Chile is a virtually rainless plateau made up of salt basins (salares), sand, and lava flows, extending from the Andes mountains to the Pacific Ocean. ... For the copper-mining company named after the region, see Antofagasta plc. ... Calama is a city in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. ... Chuquicamata, or, Chuqui, as it is commonly called, is the largest open pit copper mine in the world. ... Licancabur is a stratovolcano which lies on the border of Chile and Bolivia near the Laguna verde. ... A mummy is a preserved corpse that, due to shielding from decomposition by either natural or artificial means, has retained its physical form. ... The term Pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the New World in the era before significant European influence. ... Sandboarding is a recreational activity similar to snowboarding, except that it takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered hills. ...
Atacama is extraordinary in its beauty, geographical scope, and in the diversity of its natural and cultural attractions.
To the North lies the Pampa del Tamarugal, to the East, the Altiplano and the Cordillera de los Andes, the Salar deAtacama and the Cordillera de Domeyko to the south, and to the west, the Pampa, the Cordillera de la Costa and the Pacific Ocean.
In SanPedrodeAtacama, the average winter temperature is 71 degrees F during the day and 39 degrees F at night.