According to historyaah, over millennia, the Río Grande cut deep into the rocks in northwest Argentina, creating a passage that was an important trade and cultural link between the Andes and the lowlands for the Indians for around 10,000 years.
Quebrada de Humahuaca: facts
Official title:
Quebrada de Humahuaca
Cultural monument:
155.4 km long valley in the north of Argentina; Part of a trade and transport route that has been significant for over 10,000 years; Evidence from gathering and hunting communities from prehistoric times, from the Inca Empire (15th and 16th centuries) and the independence struggle in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Continent:
America
Country:
Argentina
Location:
Located along the river valley of the Rio Grande, from its source in the cold desert plateau of the High Andes to the confluence with the Rio Leon in Bolivia
Appointment:
2003
Meaning:
Testimony to an important transport route and its importance for settlement, agriculture and trade
Qhapaq Ñan – Inca main roads in the Andes (World Heritage)
Qhapaq Ñan – Inca main roads in the Andes (World Heritage), they are an extensive road system that extends over 30,000 kilometers.
The streets are used for communication and trade as well as defense.
This extraordinary road network, which partly goes back to structures from the pre-Inca times, was built up and expanded over centuries. It runs through one of the world’s most extreme areas, from the snow-capped peaks of the Andes at over 6,000 meters to the Pacific coast, crossing tropical rainforests, fertile valleys and inhospitable deserts. The network reached its maximum extent in the 15th century, when it crossed the Andes in their full length and width.
The Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage comprises 273 individual sites that are more than 6,000 kilometers apart. They were selected on the one hand to demonstrate the immense social, political, architectural and technical achievements of this system, as well as to make the importance for trade, accommodation, storage and religion tangible.
Qhapaq Ñan – Main Inca Roads in the Andes: Facts
Official title:
Qhapaq Ñan – main Inca roads in the Andes
Cultural monument:
Part of a cross-border road system built by the Incas for trade, communication and defense in six countries in South America, which covers a total of approx. 30,000 km; largest expansion in the 15th century; 273 individual sites with an area of 6000 km are designated as world heritage sites.
Continent:
South America
Country:
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Location:
273 individual locations in the countries mentioned
Appointment:
2014
Meaning:
Exceptional technical and political achievement of great importance for the people of the region for centuries
Los Alerces National Park (World Heritage)
The Los Alerces National Park in the southern Patagonian Andes covers around 260,000 hectares. The landscape is characterized by snow-capped mountain ranges, ice age glacier deposits, dense Valdivian rainforest, bubbling brooks, waterfalls and numerous crystal-clear lakes. Only here is the Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides) native, an impressive giant tree that can grow up to 50 meters high and over 2000 years old. The national park owes its name to this species of cypress, called Alerces in Spanish.
Los Alerces National Park: Facts
Official title:
Los Alerces National Park
Natural monument:
Landscape shaped by the Ice Age with temperate rainforest, contiguous forest area with the Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides) endemic here, around 260,000 ha, nationally protected since 1937.
Continent:
South America
Country:
Argentina
Location:
in northwest Argentina, on the border with Chile, in the province of Chubut, around 50 km from Esquel
Appointment:
2017
Meaning:
Largely untouched forest area with rare specimens of the millennia-old Patagonian cypress, protected area for numerous endangered animal and plant species
Millennial forests
Los Alerces National Park is located in the northwest of the Chubut province along the Chilean border. It was set up as early as 1937 to protect the Patagonian cypress, which was threatened by massive deforestation. Now a largely untouched forest area extends over 7000 hectares of the national park, in which this rare tree species finds its habitat. The oldest examples of these extremely slow-growing trees are estimated to be 2600 years old and thus date from the time of the first settlers. Other animal and plant species threatened with extinction also still live protected here, such as the southern Andean deer Huemul.
Part of the park is well developed for tourists. Hiking trails lead to mountains, to waterfalls or to the deep blue lakes and always offer new views of the fascinating landscape. The remains of prehistoric settlements and cave paintings can also be viewed.
