Talampaya
Talampaya Park is located
in the center south of the province of La Rioja. It
has been created to protect important
archaeological and pale ontological sites in an awe-inspiring
landmark framework of great beauty, along with the typical
mount flora and fauna.
Along the Talampaya river canyon, ancient carob tree
forests, surrounded by about 100 meters high walls can
be found.
These walls give the landscape unique attractiveness.
In this place, condors find shelter. Added to the natural
value
of the area, its cultural importance should be considered.
Numerous manifestations of prehistoric cultures who
inhabited
the area about 1,000 years ago, populate the reddish
walls and stones from Talampaya. A 13-meter long mural
full
of petroglifs, maybe the major one registered so far
in Argentina, together with others which are scattered
around the place,
make up a cultural patrimony of incalculable value.
The deep canyons, the valleys populated by
curiously-carved-by-erosion figures, the colorful sedimentary
strata, surrounded by the desert landscape of great
beauty already mentioned give Talampaya unequaled scenic
importance.
Moon Valley
The Moon Valley “Valle
de la Luna” -called by geologists “Triasic
Basin of lschigualasto”- is a vast depression
where
there is a series of ancient sediment belonging to a
geological period called Triasic, at the beginning of
the Mesozoic era.
At that time, the region weather was tropical humid
and vegetation was abundant and thick. The Andes did
not exist,
there were lakes and swamps. Through million of years,
the weather and the landscape started mutating, the
wind
eroded stones and deposited new sediments on former
ones. “The Submarine” and “The Worm”
are eroded shapes
which were carved by the wind on sedimentary rock. Other
shapes are “Aladdin’s Lamp”, “The
Parrot”, “The Mushroom”,
and “The Painted Valley”
Climatic mutations continued: at
the end of the Triasic period, the region was a desert
swept by strong winds and
inhabited by large and more developed reptiles. “Los
Colorados” formation is a result of this last
period.
Finally, much later, about 70 million
years, the so called Andean orogeny movements started.
Its push caused fractures,
folding and sliding, ascents and descents of ancient
crystal blocks –the ones which would later on
make up the hills
that surround the region today- and also of much more
recent sedimentary layers. Once large reptiles had disappeared,
the valley was populated by cougars, guanacos, and birds,
among which condors and southern ostriches can be found.
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