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anyone who has ever been fascinated by geography, the long, impossibly
thin line of Chile has always produced a tiny moment of astonishment.
Chile stretches over 4 300 km (2700 mi.) along the southwestern
coast
of South America, a distance roughly the same as San Francisco to New
York, or Moscow to Lisbon. At the same time, its width never exceeds
240
km (150 mi.), making the country more than eighteen times longer than
its widest point. The most obvious factor in Chile's remarkable
slenderness is the massive, virtually
impassable wall of the Andes; a mountain range that is still rising
and contains more than fifty active volcanic peaks. The western border
is
the Pacific Ocean, but it is a misconception to picture Chile as nothing
more than the steep western slope of the Andean peaks. All along its
length
Chile is marked by a narrow depression between the mountains and the
sea. To the north the land rises and becomes more arid, until one
reaches the
Atacama Desert, one of the most inhospitable regions on earth. To the
south just the opposite transformation takes place: the land falls
away,
and the region between mountains and the ocean fades into the baffling
archipelago maze that terminates in Chilean Patagonia. Chile's southern
extremity is marked by Cape Horn, a treacherous headland surrounded
by
almost continuously storm tossed seas and passable only through the
foggy stillness of the Strait of Magellan.
 In
the centre of the country, however, is a long and expansive river
valley,
a five hundred mile corridor occupied
in the north by vineyards and farms and in the south by primeval
forests and enchanting lakes. Santiago, the capital, anchors the
northern
and more prosperous section of the central valley. The lush Lake
District to the south is the homeland of Chile's indigenous peoples, the Araucarias.
Also part of Chile is two notable Pacific islands - the Juan Fernandez
Islands and the famous Easter Island, both are administered as national
parks. The Juan Fernandez Islands are located about 670 km off the
Chilean
coast, while Easter Island is situated at a 3700 km distance.
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