The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi) A major tourist destination in the South American country of Bolivia, the Salar is home to an estimated 10 billion tons (9.8 billion LT) of salt and completely devoid of any vegetation or wildlife.
But what is even more incredible, is where people who visit this amazing place stay, in the middle of the vast emptiness. The answer is quite remarkable.
Anyone arriving to visit this exotic part of the world is in for a real treat and a stay in one of the world's most unique hotel experiences. The lack of conventional construction materials see hotels innovatively built entirely of salt blocks cut from the Salar itself. The most famous is called Palacio de Sal, Spanish for "Palace of salt".
The hotel is made of about 1 million 35-cm (14-inch) salt blocks, used for the floor, walls, ceiling and furniture, including the beds, tables, chairs and sculptures. The hotel even has a dry sauna and a steam room, a saltwater pool and whirlpool baths for guests to relax in and enjoy.
Imagine what it feels like, sleeping on salt beds, sitting on salt chairs and even eating at salt tables. And while no one can deny how beautiful everything in this hotel is, that beauty is nothing compared to the view…
The salt flats are so white and clear they often show a perfect reflection of the sky and the objects above them. In fact, because the Salar is so flat and has such a strong reflection, similar to that of ice sheets, it is used for calibrating the distance measurement equipment of satellites in space!
The white, endless flats also offer visitors a unique opportunity to take some truly mind bending pictures. With no other objects in sights, the human eye loses its ability to establish a proper field of depth. The results are some of the most creative and bizarre pictures you will ever see…
The Salar is truly a place like no other, a magical kingdom of salt and beauty where one can drive on the endless flats and see the sky both above and below him. It is just one of many places on earth that prove that beauty has no rules and that nature always has one more trick up her sleeve.
