South America: a Continent of Ancient Civilizations, Natural Wonders, and Vibrant Cultures

South America is the fourth largest continent on Earth, covering approximately 17.8 million square kilometers and stretching from the tropical Caribbean coast in the north to the windswept tip of Patagonia near Antarctica in the south. It is a continent of extraordinary contrasts: the world's largest tropical rainforest, the world's longest mountain range, the world's highest navigable lake, the world's driest non-polar desert, and some of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems all exist within its borders. Home to approximately 440 million people spread across 12 countries, South America is a place where ancient indigenous traditions, centuries of colonial history, African heritage, and waves of European immigration have combined to create cultures of remarkable richness and complexity.

Overview and Geography

The Andes Mountains run along the entire western edge of the continent for approximately 7,000 kilometers, making them the longest continental mountain range on Earth. The range was formed by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate and contains many of the highest peaks in the Western Hemisphere, including Aconcagua in Argentina at 6,961 meters, the highest point outside of Asia. The Andes are geologically active, with numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes along their length.

East of the Andes lie the vast lowlands of the continent, dominated by the Amazon Basin. The Amazon River, the world's largest by water volume, drains an area of approximately 7 million square kilometers and carries roughly 20 percent of all freshwater that flows into the world's oceans. The Amazon rainforest, covering approximately 5.5 million square kilometers, is the largest tropical forest on Earth and home to an estimated 10 percent of all species on the planet.

South of the Amazon Basin are the cerrado, a vast tropical savanna, and further south the grasslands of the Pampas in Argentina and Uruguay, some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world. In the far south, Patagonia stretches across both Argentina and Chile as a cold, windswept plateau of steppes, glaciers, and fjords. The Atacama Desert along the Pacific coast of Chile and Peru is the driest non-polar desert on Earth, with some weather stations having never recorded rainfall.

The Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago belonging to Ecuador and located about 900 kilometers off the Pacific coast, are one of the world's most remarkable ecosystems, famous for the unique wildlife that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

History of South America