City guide · Uyuni
Uyuni
The little town at the gate of the Mirror of the Sky — a high-plateau station at 3,600 metres
Uyuni lies on the Altiplano plateau of southwestern Bolivia at about 3,665 metres — a town born of the railway. At the end of the 19th century Bolivia's railway reached here, and from then on the tin and silver of the Andes were shipped through Uyuni to the Pacific ports; when mining declined, rusting steam locomotives were abandoned outside the town, becoming the famous "train cemetery." Today the town has been reborn as the base camp of salt-flat tours: on the tour-agency street at dawn, fleets of four-wheel-drives prepare to set out for the world's largest salt flat.
History
How the city came to be
Uyuni rose with the railway: in 1889 the railway reached here and a station and town were built (the Encyclopaedia Britannica gives 1890 or thereabouts); British engineers and railway companies planned it as the hub between the high-plateau mining districts and the Chilean port of Antofagasta, and its wide straight streets and clock tower keep the marks of that age. In the first half of the 20th century the ores of the Pulacayo silver mine and the surrounding tin mines were gathered here, and Uyuni flourished for a time, with Slavic and Syrian immigrant merchants trading in the town. In the 1940s mining declined, and batch after batch of locomotives were abandoned at the edge of the salt flat outside town. At the end of the 20th century salt-flat tourism rose: the world's largest salt flat, over ten thousand square kilometres, whose rainy-season "Mirror of the Sky" effect spread through photography around the world, and the town transformed into a gateway of adventure tourism; the rich lithium resources beneath the salt flat have also brought it into the view of the new-energy age.
- 1889The railway reaches Uyuni; a station is built and the town founded
- 1892The railway is completed toward Oruro and La Paz
- 1940Mining declines; the abandoned locomotives form the train cemetery
- 1980Salt-flat tourism begins to rise
- 2000"Mirror of the Sky" photographs go viral worldwide
- 2014The Dakar Rally crosses the Salar de Uyuni for the first time
- 2023An industrial lithium plant on the salt flat begins production
Trips beyond the city
These places can be explored from this city but lie outside it. See each place for transport and visiting guidance.
