2. Machu Picchu (in hispanicized spelling, Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmatʃu ˈpiktʃu]) or Machu
Pikchu (Quechua machu old, old person, pikchu peak; mountain or prominence with a broad
base which ends in sharp peaks,[1] "old peak", pronunciation [ˈmɑtʃu ˈpixtʃu]) is a 15th-century
Inca site located 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level.[2][3] It is located in the Cusco Region,
Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District in Peru.[4] It is situated on a mountain ridge above
the Sacred Valley which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cusco and through which the
Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate
for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often mistakenly referred to as the "Lost City of
the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of Inca civilization.
The Incas built the estate around 1450, but abandoned it a century later at the time of the
Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being
brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since
then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings
have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally
looked like.[5] By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored.[5] The restoration
work continues to this day.[6]

3. Iguazu Falls, Iguazú Falls, Iguassu Falls, or Iguaçu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu
[kataˈɾatɐʒ du iɡwaˈsu]; Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú [kataˈɾatas ðel iɣwaˈsu]; Guarani: Chororo
Yguasu [ɕoɾoɾo ɨɣʷasu]) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentina
province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. The falls divide the river into the upper
and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the city of Curitiba. For most of its course, the river
flows through Brazil, however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence
with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil.
The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani or Tupi words "y" [ɨ], meaning "water", and "ûasú
"[waˈsu], meaning "big".[2] Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman
named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the
river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.[2] The first European
to record the existence of the falls was the Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in
1541.

4. Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa)[citation needed] is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582
square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest
Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes and is at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above
mean sea level.[1]
The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is
covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average
altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a
source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to
70% of the world's lithium reserves,[2] which is in the process of being extracted. The large
area, clear skies, and the exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an ideal object for
calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites.[3][4][5][6][7]
The Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano and is a major
breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos. Salar de Uyuni is also a climatological
transitional zone since the towering tropical cumulus congestus and cumulus incus clouds that
form in the eastern part of the salt flat during the summer cannot permeate beyond its drier
western edges, near the Chilean border and the Atacama Desert.