The flattest place on Earth – Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
In Bolivia there is a salt plain that is so flat that space agencies around the world use to calibrate altimeters on satellites around the Earth. With an area of over 10,000 square kilometers, Salar de Uyuni is the largest in the world and is so plain that varies with height less than a meter over the entire surface.
Comparatively, if Salar de Uyuni would be in France, would be about as big as Paris. In fact, the salt plain is situated at an altitude of 3656 meters, in the Altiplano plateau and a lake was formed after enrom called Minchin, gradually evaporated in the last 20,000 years. Lake remains visible today: near Uyuni salt desert, Uru Uru and Poopo lakes plus Titicaca Lake, are connected to each other during the rainy season, reconstructing some of the old lacustrine surface Minchin.
Three quarters of the year, saturated receives only very little rainfall, the total life practically free. Salt layer with a thickness varying between 2 and 20 meters, is responsible for the amazing area plain: once the rainy season waters melt the surface of the deposit of salt, it turns into a huge salt lake with a very shallow. Repeated thousands of times over the years, led to the flattening process almost perfect.
With the appearance of huge white seas, Salar de Uyuni is centered around several “islands” of old volcanic peaks, which in other times emerging from a sea of water, not salt. Fascinating in the middle of a dry desert, rocky peaks covered by fossilized coral and sedimentary deposits with traces of marine life.
Adventurers who want to visit Sărătura generally have as a starting point Uyum town, located just a few kilometers away from the edge of salt, and can sleep in one of the hotels built from blocks of salt extracted from the former lake.