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Rang

The white salt flat

Salar de Uyuni

The largest salt flat on earth: a level white plain that becomes a mirror of the sky after rain.

This is the Salar of Uyuni, in Bolivia.
Photo: Anouchka Unel, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Salar de Uyuni is salt white

The Salar de Uyuni lies in south-west Bolivia at about 3,650 metres. It covers roughly ten thousand square kilometres, the dried bed of ancient lakes, and is the largest salt flat in the world. In the dry season the surface is a hard white crust cracked into many-sided tiles, stretching to the horizon with no landmarks. After rain a thin sheet of water turns it into a mirror, so that sky and ground cannot be told apart. Local people cut the salt into blocks and pile it in cones to dry. Further south, near the Chilean border, a shallow lake is coloured red by algae and sediment and is visited by flocks of pink flamingos.

Salt white#F7F7F5High-altitude sky blue#3C7CC4Laguna Colorada red#B5462FFlamingo pink#F08CA8

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Salar de Uyuni

WhiteThe lightest colour, seen in snow, milk and chalk, and opposite to black
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Salar de Uyuni" on Wikipedia. If you know Salar de Uyuni and we have it wrong, tell us.

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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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