Torres del Paine

A Patagonian park of jagged granite spires, glaciers and turquoise lakes.

The park sits about 112 kilometres north of the town of Puerto Natales and covers roughly 1,800 square kilometres. It was created in 1959 and named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1978, a special status for places where nature and people are studied together. It is one of the largest and most visited parks in Chile, welcoming about 252,000 visitors a year.

Towers, horns and glaciers

The heart of the park is the Paine Massif, a group of mountains rising sharply from the flat steppe. The three Torres del Paine stand about 2,500 metres above sea level, and next to them are the Cuernos del Paine, or "Horns of Paine", more sharp peaks joined to the towers. The highest summit in the massif is Paine Grande, at about 2,884 metres. To the west, Grey Glacier and other glaciers flow from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.

Why the lakes are so blue

Lakes such as Grey, Pehoé, Nordenskjöld and Sarmiento shine in bright blue and turquoise. The colour comes from "rock flour", extremely fine dust made when glaciers grind against the rock beneath them. Meltwater carries the dust into the lakes, where it floats and reflects sunlight in blue-green shades. The park is also famous for its strong winds, which are strongest from November to January, the busiest time for visitors.

Animals of the park

Guanacos, wild relatives of llamas and alpacas, graze in herds on the grasslands. Pumas, also called cougars, are the park's top predators, and scientists have studied how they hunt guanacos here. The park is also home to foxes and to the huemul, an endangered South Andean deer. Overhead you might see Andean condors, giant vultures of the Andes. Sadly, fires started by careless visitors in 1985, 2005 and 2011 each burned more than 150 square kilometres of the park.

On the globe

The model shows Patagonia's jagged granite spires rising above glaciers and turquoise lakes in southern Chile. Zoom in to pick out the three towers among the peaks.