Mountain Ranges
Jun 26 2025
🏔️ Overview The Cordillera de MĂ©rida is the principal mountain chain of the Venezuelan Andes and one of the most important physical features of western Venezuela. Extending northeastward across the country from near the Colombian border toward the region around Barquisimeto, the range contains Venezuela’s highest summits, extensive páramo landscapes, deep valleys, montane forests, and …
Jun 25 2025
🏔️ Overview The Wilhelmina Mountains (Dutch: Wilhelminagebergte) are a remote mountain range in the forested interior of Suriname, in northern South America. Located in Sipaliwini District, the range forms part of the ancient Guiana Shield and lies largely within the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, one of the largest protected tropical forest areas in the region. …
Jun 24 2025
🏔️ Overview The Mantiqueira Mountains, known in Portuguese as the Serra da Mantiqueira, form one of the most important mountain regions in southeastern Brazil. Extending through portions of Minas Gerais, SĂŁo Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro, the range contains some of the highest summits in the country, extensive remnants of Atlantic Forest, high-elevation grasslands, major …
Jun 24 2025
The Serra do Mar is one of Brazil’s most important mountain systems, forming a dramatic line of forested ridges and escarpments along the country’s Atlantic margin. Rather than a single continuous ridge, it is a complex series of mountains, massifs, steep escarpments, valleys, and elevated plateaus extending through southeastern and southern Brazil. Closely associated with …
Jun 23 2025
🏔️ Overview The Cordillera Oriental, or Eastern Cordillera, is the easternmost of the three principal branches of the Colombian Andes. Stretching generally southwest to northeast through the heart of Colombia, it contains immense highland plateaus, deeply incised valleys, cloud forests, páramo wetlands, glacial landscapes, and some of the country’s most densely populated mountain regions. The …
Jun 12 2025
🏔️ Overview Torres del Paine is one of the most recognizable mountain landmarks in Patagonia. Rising above the valleys and glacial lakes of southern Chile, the three steep granite towers form the eastern side of the Cordillera Paine, a compact and exceptionally rugged mountain group protected within Torres del Paine National Park. The name Torres …
Jun 08 2025
Rising above turquoise lakes, windswept steppe, forests, and glaciers in southern Chile, the Cordillera Paine is one of Patagonia’s most recognizable mountain groups. Also commonly called the Paine Massif or Cordillera del Paine, it forms the dramatic centerpiece of Torres del Paine National Park in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region. The range is best …
Jun 03 2025
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an extraordinary isolated mountain massif rising abruptly above Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Separate from the main chain of the Andes, it contains Colombia’s highest mountains, extensive tropical alpine ecosystems, important remnants of glaciers, exceptional biodiversity, and landscapes that are culturally sacred to the Indigenous peoples who have lived in …
Jun 02 2025
The Cordillera Huayhuash is a compact but extraordinary mountain range in the central Peruvian Andes, known for steep glaciated summits, turquoise alpine lakes, high mountain passes, and some of the most technically challenging peaks in South America. Although the main range extends for only about 30 kilometers (19 miles), it contains an exceptional concentration of …
May 27 2025
The Spring Mountains rise dramatically above the Mojave Desert west and northwest of Las Vegas, forming one of southern Nevada’s most distinctive mountain landscapes. The range reaches its highest point at Mount Charleston (Charleston Peak), which rises to approximately 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) and towers thousands of feet above the surrounding desert basins. This enormous …
