There are a lot of interesting facts about Chile, and it’s is a beautiful, and fascinating country. Chile has amazing coastline, mountains, and in the south, awesome icebergs and inlets. Once you see photos of this place, you will want to head there right away! Here are:

26 Interesting Facts about Chile

1. Chile is one of only two countries in all of South America that does not border Brazil. (Ecuador also, if you were wondering).

2. Over 1/3 of the world’s copper production is produced in Chile, and they are the 5th largest exporter of wine in the world. They also have the second largest reserve of lithium and has substantial reserves of iron, silver, salt, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, gold, coal, and iodine. They are also now the number two exporter of Salmon, after Norway and in front of the US.

3. Chile is the longest country in the world from north to south at 2,647 miles long and extends across 38 degrees of latitude.

4. Chile has one of the longest recorded dry spells, recorded in the Atacama Desert. It did not rain for 40 years.

5. Chile’s National Library, completed in 1924, has 1.8 million volumes and is the largest national library of a Spanish-speaking country outside of Spain.

6. Divorce in Chile was legalized only in 2005, and the country has one of the lowest divorce rates globally.

7. Along the mountainous region of Chile, there are over 1300 volcanoes and a number of them can still be active.

8. Chile has the largest annual fireworks show in all of South America in the city of Valparaiso, during its New Year’s Pyrotechnic Festival. In 2007, Valparaiso made the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest amount of fireworks exploded in one evening: 16,000.

9. The Chilean Museo Arqueológico de San Miguel de Azapa is the home to the world’s oldest mummies. The 282 Chinchorro mummies have been radiocarbon-dated to 7200 B.C. Sorry Egypt.

10. The “maoi” or “Rapa Nui” island off the coast of Chile, was annexed by Chile and renamed Easter Island in the late seventeen hundred’s

11. Chile is one of the few countries on earth that has a government-supported UFO research organization. The UK got rid of theirs to be able to fund the wars in the Middle East.

12. Michelle Bachelet Jeria was the first woman president ever in Chile and was elected in January 2006.

13. Chile’s Lago Llanquihue is the second largest lake in South America, after Peru’s Lake Titicaca, at 330 square miles. The name means “deep place” in Mapuche.

14. The inlet at the top of Africa was part of Chile in the days of “Pangaea”.

15. Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned for about four years on Chile’s Islas Juan Fernández, located 364 miles west of the main land. After being rescued, his story was said to be the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s classic novel Robinson Crusoe.

16. The alerce tree, found in southern Chile, are know for some being over 4,000 years old.

17. the world’s smallest species of deer, The pudú, resides in Chile, and is extremely difficult to see in the wild.

18. It is believed that Native Americans settled in Chile about 10,000 years ago.

19. In 1960, an earthquake measuring 9.5 hit southern Chile with the epicenter at Valdivia, killing more than 1,500 people and leaving approximately 2,000 homeless. This is the biggest earthquake recorded on earth since 1900.

20. The city at the very tip of Chile called Punta Arenas it is the southern most city on a continent in the world.

21. The southernmost village in the world is also in Chile Called “Puerto Williams”

22. Chile also has the One of the highest lakes above sea level in the world, called “Lake Chungara”

23. Gabriela Mistral, became the first Chilean and Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1945.

24. Chile boasts the world’s largest outdoor swimming pool,located at the San Alfonso del Mar Resort. It is larger than 20 Olympic swimming pools and holds 66 million gallons of water. The pool is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s deepest at 115 feet.

25. In 1990, the men’s national soccer team famously walked out of the middle of a qualifying game against Brazil, after their goal keeper, “El Condor” Rojas, collapsed with a gash on his face. The players had thought the Brazilians had hit him with a bengala, a kind of firework, until Rojas confessed that his wound was self-inflicted.

26. The atmosphere in the mountains in the Norte Grande part of Chile is excellent for astronomers because the air is particularly clear. It is the chosen spot for observatories in all the Southern Hemisphere, having 300 clear nights a year. This makes Chile one of the leading countries when it comes to the study of astrology.

Interesting Country Facts