Salar de Uyuni: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:22, 18 January 2025

Latest revision as of 15:06, 16 April 2025

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===Train cemetery===

One major tourist attraction is an antique train cemetery. It is {{convert|3|km|mile|abbr=on}} outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals en route to Pacific Ocean ports. The rail lines were built by British engineers arriving near the end of the 19th century and formed a sizeable community in Uyuni. The engineers were invited by the British-sponsored Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Companies, now [[Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia]]. The rail construction started in 1888 and ended in 1892. It was encouraged by Bolivian President [[Aniceto Arce]], who believed Bolivia would flourish with a good transport system, but it was also constantly sabotagedinterrupted by the local Aymara indigenous Indians who saw it as an intrusion into their lives. The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly because of mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned, producing the train cemetery. There are proposals to build a museum from the cemetery.<ref name=trav1/>

{{Wide image|Uyuni Décembre 2007 - Cimetière de Trains 1.jpg|1100px|Cemetery of trains near the town of [[Uyuni]]}}