Robert HardingA pristine white salt flat stretching over ten thousand square kilometers (the largest in the world), the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is one of the earth’s most surreal places. Located near the peaks of the Andes at 3,656 metres, it was formed by prehistoric lakes. We chose some of our favourite images from the photo archive.
Bus driving through the ethereal landscape of the Salar de Uyuni (Marco Simoni/Robert Harding)
Tourists jump for joy while posing for a photograph in the middle of the Salar (Aurora Photos/Robert Harding)
Bolivian children in a truck on the salt lake (LOOK/Robert Harding)
Under the salt solids is a brine which contains a large amount of Lithium. The industrialization of Lithium has given hope of economic development to the people of the provinces surrounding the Salar (Javier Arcenillas/Robert Harding)
Two Bolivian salt miners extract salt from the salt flats (Kim Walker/Robert Harding)
Driving across the largest salt flat in the world (Simon Montgomery/Robert Harding)
View across the salt lake (LOOK/Robert Harding)
Isla de los Pescadores is a lone ‘island’ in the middle of the salt flats, with Volcan Tunupa in the background (Simon Montgomery/Robert Harding)
Just when you thought the landscape couldn’t get any more surreal, here is the Train Cemetery (Cementerio de Trenes), a collection of abandoned steam trains on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni (Kim Walker/Robert Harding)
Se more photos of the Salar de Uyuni here