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Atacama Desert
Atacama Desert , arid region, c.600 mi (970 km) long, N Chile, extending south from the border of Peru. The desert itself, c.2,000 ft (610 m) above sea level, is a series of dry salt basins flanked on the W by the Pacific coastal range, averaging c.2,500 ft (760 m) high, and on the E by the Andes. T...
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Loa
Loa , longest river of Chile, 275 mi (443 km) long, flowing S from the Andes, N Chile, then W and N through the Atacama Desert, before turning W to the Pacific Ocean. It is not navigable but affords some water supply and hydroelectric power for copper and nitrate-mining communities in its vicinity. ...
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Diego de Almagro
Diego de Almagro , c.1475-1538, Spanish conquistador, a leader in the conquest of Peru. A partner of Francisco Pizarro , he took part in the first (1524) and second (1526-28) expeditions and in the bloody subjugation of the Incas after 1532. He aided (1534) Benalcázar in thwarting Pedro de...
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Antofagasta
Antofagasta , city (1992 pop. 226,749), capital of Antofagasta region, N Chile, a port on the Pacific Ocean. Antofagasta was founded by Chileans in 1870 to exploit nitrates in the Atacama Desert, then under Bolivian administration. Its occupation by Chilean troops in 1879 sparked the War of the Paci...
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Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia , c.1500-1554, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Chile. One of Francisco Pizarro's best officers in the conquest of Peru, educated, energetic, somewhat less cruel and avaricious than his fellow conquerors, Valdivia obtained permission from Pizarro to subdue Chile. In Jan., 1540, h...
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European Southern Observatory
European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental organization for astronomical research with headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. The ESO began in 1962 as a consortium among Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Swede...
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Andes
Andes , mountain system, more than 5,000 mi (8,000 km) long, W South America. The ranges run generally parallel to the Pacific coast and extend from Tierra del Fuego northward, across the equator, as the backbone of the entire continent. The Falkland Islands are a continuation of the Andes, and ev...
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mummy
mummy dead human or animal body preserved by embalming or by unusual natural conditions. As a rule mummies are from ancient times. The word is of Arabic derivation and refers primarily to the burials found in Egypt, where the practice of mummification was perfected over the centuries to an extrem...
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Bolivia
Bolivia , officially Republic of Bolivia, republic (2005 est. pop. 8,858,000), 424,162 sq mi (1,098,581 sq km), W South America. One of the two inland countries of South America, Bolivia is shut in from the Pacific in the W by Chile and Peru; in the E and N it borders on Brazil, in the SE on Paragua...
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Chile
Chile , officially Republic of Chile, republic (2005 est. pop. 15,981,000), 292,256 sq mi (756,945 sq km), S South America, west of the continental divide of the Andes Mts. Chile is bordered by Peru on the north, Bolivia on the northeast, Argentina on the east, and the Pacific Ocean on the west and ...
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