Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, Chile

Chile-3, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works are two former saltpeter refineries located in northern Chile. They were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
Humberstone and Santa Laura are located 48 km east of the city of Iquique in the Atacama Desert in the Region of Tarapacá in northern Chile. Other saltpeter works or "nitrate towns" include Chacabuco, Maria Elena, Pedro de Valdivia, Puelma and Aguas Santas among many others. Chacabuco is a special case since it was also used as a concentration camp during Pinochet's regime, and to this day remains surrounded by lost landmines.

Read more...

Sewell Mining Town, Chile

Chile-2, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Sewell is an uninhabited Chilean mining town located in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, O'Higgins Region, on the slopes of the Andes.The town was founded in 1904 by the Braden Copper Co. to extract the copper in the El Teniente mine, and, in 1915, it was named after the company's first president, Mr. Barton Sewell. In 1918, it already housed 14,000 people.
Following many years of active life and achieving the construction and exploitation of the largest underground mine in the world, in 1977 the company started moving families to the valley and soon after the camp was being dismantled.
The Chilean Government declared Sewell a National Monument in 1998, while the UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 2006.
Sewell is known as the city of stairs as there were no roads, only a train that brought workers and their families to the camp; at night, it had the shape and the looks of a Christmas tree and anyone being born or having lived in Sewell keeps the memories of a place never heard of.

Read more...

Valparaíso, Chile

Chile-1, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Victoria Park Cathedral

Read more...