The Kingdom Of Salt

Salar de Uyuni stands out as the earth's biggest salt flat at 4, 086 sq mls. It's positioned in the Potosí and Oruro departments in south west Bolivia, close to the crest of the Andes.

Salar de Uyuni draws in visitors from all over the world. While in the rainy period, salt marsh is covered with a slim layer of water and it is transformed in to the earth's biggest mirror surface area. Because of the huge size, flat surface as well as high albedo with the presence of a slim layer of water, along with the minimal deviation of height, Salar de Uyuni is the perfect tool for testing and calibration of remote sensing orbiting satellites. Crystal clear skies and dry air can calibrate satellites approximately 5 times better than in case you used the sea surface.

Simply because it is situated faraway from the towns, several hotels happen to be constructed in the location. As a result of absence of standard building resources, most of them are practically completely (walls, roofing, furniture) constructed with salt blocks cut from the Salar.

In the heart of the salt plains, you will find a structure created from salt blocks, in which visitors from all over the world placed the flags of their countries.

One important tourist attraction is an old train cemetery. It's 1. 9 mi outside Uyuni and it is linked to it with the old train tracks. The city delivered in the past as a distribution hub for the trains transporting minerals enroute to Pacific Ocean ports. The locomotives have been mainly used by the exploration companies. Within the 1940s, the exploration industry collapsed, mostly as a result of mineral depletion. A lot of trains have been left behind, creating the train cemetery.