28 best places to visit in South America

The Inca citadel sits on a ridge at 2,430 metres above the Urubamba valley, about 80 kilometres north-west of Cusco. It was built around 1450, probably as an estate for the emperor Pachacuti, abandoned within a century and brought to the world's attention by Hiram Bingham in 1911. UNESCO listed the sanctuary in 1983, the site was voted one of the New Seven Wonders in 2007, and it now receives more than 1.5 million visitors a year.

Altitude: 2,430 metres · Built: around 1450 · Heritage: UNESCO listed in 1983

Location: Machupicchu District, above Aguas Calientes, Cusco Region, Peru

Access: Timed tickets sold in advance for set circuits; buses climb from Aguas Calientes, reached by train from Ollantaytambo or Cusco

The Iguazu River drops off the edge of the Paraná plateau in around 275 falls along 2.7 kilometres of cliff on the border between Argentina and Brazil. Half the flow pours into the Devil's Throat, a horseshoe chasm some 80 metres deep. Almost 80 per cent of the falls lie in Argentina, while the Brazilian bank has the panoramic view. Both national parks are UNESCO listed, Argentina's in 1984 and Brazil's in 1986, and the falls were voted one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature in 2011.

Falls: about 275 along 2.7 kilometres · Devil's Throat: around 80 metres deep

Location: Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina, and Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil

Access: Ticketed on both sides; the Argentine side opens daily from 8:00 to 18:00, last entry 16:00

The statue on the 700-metre summit of Corcovado stands 30 metres tall on an 8-metre pedestal, with arms spread 28 metres wide. Designed by the engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and sculpted by the Frenchman Paul Landowski, it took nine years to build in reinforced concrete clad in soapstone and was opened on 12 October 1931. It is the largest Art Deco sculpture in the world, was voted one of the New Seven Wonders in 2007 and stands inside the Tijuca National Park, part of Rio's UNESCO-listed landscape since 2012.

Height: 30 metres plus an 8-metre pedestal · Opened: 12 October 1931

Location: Corcovado, Tijuca National Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Access: Ticketed; the cog train from Cosme Velho and the official vans climb to the summit on timed departures

Between 500 BC and AD 500 the people of the south coast scraped away the dark surface pebbles of the desert to draw lines, triangles and more than 70 animal and plant figures on the pale ground beneath. The hummingbird is 93 metres long and the condor 134. The German mathematician Maria Reiche spent half a century studying and protecting them. UNESCO listed the lines and geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa in 1994. They are best seen from a light aircraft, or from the metal tower beside the Pan-American Highway.

Made: 500 BC to AD 500 · Heritage: UNESCO listed in 1994

Location: Pampa de Jumana, between Nazca and Palpa, Ica Region, Peru

Access: Overflights from the Nazca and Pisco airfields and the roadside viewing tower are ticketed

The largest salt flat on earth covers 10,582 square kilometres of the Bolivian Altiplano at 3,656 metres, the crust of a prehistoric lake that dried into hexagonal plates of salt. In the dry season it is a blinding white plain broken by islands such as Incahuasi, where giant cacti grow; when rain floods it, mostly between January and March, a thin sheet of water turns it into a mirror more than a hundred kilometres across. Most people cross it on a one to three-day four-wheel-drive tour from the town of Uyuni.

Area: 10,582 square kilometres · Altitude: 3,656 metres

Location: Daniel Campos Province, Potosí Department, near Uyuni, Bolivia

Access: Free to enter; tours leave Uyuni daily and Incahuasi Island is ticketed

The driest non-polar desert on earth runs down the north of Chile between the Andes and the coastal range, with weather stations that have never recorded rain. The oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama, at about 2,400 metres, is the base for the Valle de la Luna and its wind-carved ridges, the geysers of El Tatio, the flamingo lagoons of the Salar de Atacama and the cone of Licancabur on the Bolivian border. The clear skies host the ALMA array and the Very Large Telescope.

Rainfall: around 15 millimetres a year · Base: San Pedro de Atacama

Location: Antofagasta Region, around San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile

Access: Sites such as the Valle de la Luna and El Tatio are ticketed; most visits are guided tours from San Pedro

The tallest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, Kerepakupai Vená to the Pemon, drops 979 metres from the edge of Auyán-tepui, a table mountain in the Gran Sabana, with a single plunge of 807 metres. The American pilot Jimmie Angel flew over it on 16 November 1933 and, four years later, landed his plane on top of the tepui. The falls lie inside Canaima National Park, UNESCO listed in 1994, and are reached by light aircraft to Canaima and then by dugout canoe when the rivers are high enough, roughly June to December.

Height: 979 metres, plunge of 807 · Heritage: Canaima National Park, UNESCO listed in 1994

Location: Auyán-tepui, Canaima National Park, Bolívar State, Venezuela

Access: Flights to Canaima and guided canoe trips are sold as packages, mainly from June to December

Photo: "Kerepakupai Vená II" by Sinfinitu (CC BY 3.0); "Auyantepuy" by Gabrielplopez (CC BY-SA 3.0); "Salto del Angel, Canaima, Venezuela" by Diego Delso (CC BY 3.0).

The largest Spanish fortress in the Americas rises on the hill of San Lázaro outside the walled city of Cartagena, a triangle of batteries, ramps and tunnels begun in 1639 and enlarged through the eighteenth century until it dominated every approach by land and sea. In 1741 its guns and Blas de Lezo's garrison drove off Admiral Vernon's British fleet in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias. UNESCO listed the fort with the walled city and the rest of the port's defences in 1984.

Built: from 1639, enlarged in the 18th century · Heritage: UNESCO listed in 1984

Location: Cerro de San Lázaro, Cartagena de Indias, Bolívar, Colombia

Access: Ticketed, open daily; audio guides are available at the entrance

Rapa Nui lies some 3,500 kilometres off the Chilean coast and holds nearly a thousand moai carved between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries. Most were cut from the tuff of the Rano Raraku crater, where hundreds still stand half buried on the slopes; the fifteen re-erected on Ahu Tongariki make the classic sunrise view. UNESCO listed Rapa Nui National Park in 1995. Flights from Santiago land at Hanga Roa, the only town, and a single park ticket covers every site.

Statues: nearly 1,000 moai · Heritage: Rapa Nui National Park, UNESCO listed in 1995

Location: Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Valparaíso Region, Chile

Access: Park ticket required, bought online or in Hanga Roa and valid for several days; local guides accompany visits to the main sites

A neo-Gothic basilica built between 1916 and 1949 inside the canyon of the Guáitara River, seven kilometres from Ipiales and a short drive from the Ecuadorian border. Its bridge spans the gorge 50 metres above the water and the church rises 100 metres from the canyon floor, its apse set against the rock where, according to tradition, the Virgin appeared to a woman and her daughter in 1754; the painted image on the stone is still the altar. Pilgrims from both countries fill it at weekends, and a cable car crosses the canyon from the town side.

Built: 1916 to 1949 · Bridge: 50 metres above the river

Location: Guáitara canyon, Ipiales, Nariño, Colombia

Access: Free to enter the church; the museum in the lower floors and the cable car are ticketed