Including the Regions of Tarapaca and Antofagasta (first and second regions respectively), the Big North region comprises a land full of contrasts. It is a zone where the dryness and barrenness of the Atacama Desert contrast the fertility of the valleys and oasis (such as Azapa Valley and Pica Oasis). It is also contrasting the presence of a wide biological variety, whose most representative samples are protected in the parks and national monuments Lauca, Isluga and Surire Saltflat.
But the desert and the high plateau keep on fascinating, along with their geography: the Valle de la Luna, with its incredible rock formations; the 300 thousand hectares Atacama Saltflat, the impressive Tatio Geysers; or the numberless thermal springs, like Mamiņa.
On the other hand, it is a land full of archeological, natural and cultural wealth. The geoglyphs from Cerro Pintado and the pukaras (fortresses) of Quitor and Lasana, tell us about the high degree of development obtained by the original peoples of the area. More recent in time and history of the country, the saltpeter works, such as Maria Elena, are silent testimonies of a magnificent past. The religious feast of La Tirana the most representative exponent of the mixture between the pagan traditions and catholicism.
Every city and village of the region is an inheritor of this past. There are many towns as San Pedro de Atacama and Putre, surrounded by desert kilometers, whose shape and rhythm of living widely differ from those cities located along the shoreline, such as Arica, Iquique and Antofagasta; and also Calama, born due to Chuquicamata mining activity, the biggest mineral pit in the world.
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