Machu Picchu - Peru

South America is a country that will captivate you, not only for its sheer size but for the biodiversity. The landmass of South America is approximately 13% of the entire landmass on earth, stretching over both sides of the equator and connected to North America by the strategically located Isthmus of Panama, a narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. In the 15^th century Europeans referred to this mostly undiscovered region as the New World. The south of the continent is separated from Antarctica by a 950km ocean passage called the Drake Passage.

A land of extremes South America is home to the Andes the longest mountain range in the world running for 7100 km along the west coast of the continent, surpassed only by the Himalayas in height, the largest river in volume, the Amazon, running through the biggest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest, the highest waterfall in Venezuela and the driest desert covering over 1600km, the Atacama Desert.

It is considered the driest region in the world, and in some parts there has been no recorded rainfall in over 400 years. In South America the major uplands are: the Brazilian Highlands, the Guiana Shield and Patagonian Steppe. The Amazon rainforest is known to contain one-tenth of the Earth’s species and many species which are yet to be discovered.

The biggest country of this continent is Brazil, which is inhabited by half of the entire population of  South America. Nowadays, many people are coming to big cities from poor villages and are contributing to the growing problem of slum cities. There biggest cities are: San Paulo (9,8 mln) and Rio de Janeiro (5,6 mln) in Brazil, Bogota (5,2 mln) in Columbia,  Santiago (4,9 mln) in Chile, Lima (4,2 mln) in Peru. The present populations of South America are descendants of European, African and indigenous American Indians.

One of the most important monuments to ancient civilizations is the UNESCO World Heritage site of Machu Picchu in Peru, known as “The lost city of the Incas, the grandeur and mystery of this site is a must for all visitors to South America.



Gallery - Monuments of South America