Lake Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Lake Salar de Uyuni, also known as Salar de Tunupa, is one of the most interesting, unique, and beautiful lakes in Bolivia. The largest salt marsh in the world. It has an area of about 10,582 square kilometres of land in the region of Potosí and lies at an altitude of about 3,650 metres (internal plateau of the Central Andes). Salar de Uyuni is a part of the Bolivian Altiplano in South America. Altiplano, a high plateau, was formed during the uplift of the Andes Mountains. On the Plateau occur freshwater lagoons and saltwater lagoons. It is completely surrounded by mountains, and there is no source of water leakage.

Some 30 to 42 thousand years ago, the area was part of a huge prehistoric lake, Lake Minchin, which once covered almost the entire southwest of Bolivia. Salar de Uyuni is estimated to have a reserve of 10 billion tonnes of salt, while production is 19,700 tonnes per year, and it is extracted by conventional methods.

First Image by Flickr user Andrea Massucco

Image by Flickr user Sergio Gatti

In the dry season, the salt flat expanse is covered with dry salt, but in the rainy season, the vast expanse is covered by a thin layer of water. This site was created as a result of the conversion of several prehistoric lakes. It is covered with a salt crust, with salt flats at a height of several metres. They contain 50 to 70 per cent of the world's reserves of lithium and also contain large amounts of sodium, potassium, magnesium and borax. Salar de Uyuni serves as the main transport route through the Bolivian Altiplano and is a primary residence for several species of pink flamingos.

Image by Flickr user Leonora Enking

In the rainy season, from November to March, the lake-marsh Uyuni turns into a huge mirror — salt cells covered by a very thin layer of clear water, which reflects the sky, and it becomes quite clear, exactly, the horizon. Every year it attracts about 60,000 tourists from around the world. And no wonder, because this salt desert is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Image by Flickr user Chris Riley

Image by Flickr user Robert Cutts

For these sites are characterised by large swings in temperature; at night it can drop below zero, and often in the afternoon it swarms up to 40-50 degrees Celsius. Tourism and salt are the main sources of income. The attraction of tourists from all over the world has increased; the number of hotels has been built for accommodation. Due to a lack of conventional construction materials, many of them are almost entirely built by salt blocks, just like walls, roofs, furniture and sculpture too. The first salt hotel was built in 1995 in the centre of the salt zone, and soon it became a popular tourist destination. Later, many more constructions are made out of salt.