Photographs of the funiculars
in Chile
Fotografías dos ascensores
de Chile
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Valparaíso: Artillería
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Valparaíso: Barón
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Valparaíso: El Peral (*)
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Valparaíso: El Peral
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Valparaíso: El Peral
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Valparaíso: Larrain
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Valparaíso: Larrain
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Valparaíso: Lecheros
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Valparaíso: Hospital Carlos
von Buren
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Viña del Mar: Villanelo
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Viña del Mar: Reñaca
(Allen Morrison)
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Santiago
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Santiago (Anita Roth)
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Santiago
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Sewell (Col. Raúl Moroni/Allen
Morrison)
Sewell is a former copper mine town in the Andes, 80 km south of Santiago and 60 km east of Rancagua.
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(*) By kind permission/Con permisión
especial: Copyright El Mercurio de Valparaíso
The world's southernmost (and northernmost)
funiculars
At the southern end of Chile, the southernmost
point of the continent, can be found Cape Horn island. Discovered by Sir
Frederik Drake by accident in 1578, it was visited in 1616 on a search
for a new more southernly passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by two
Dutchmen and named after the natal village of one of them, Hoorn in Holland.
The island with a height of 435 Meter houses today a small naval base which
also serves as a weather station. Every eight weeks a small boat brings
supplies of food and other necessities which are then transported uphill
by the funicular. In addition, there is a chapel (the nearest one further
south is in the Antarctic) and a lighthouse which, however, is out of use.
The island can be visited by groups, and the participants then receive
a stamp in their passports to confirm their visit..
(The world's northernmost funicular, Åre Bergbanan, can
then be found in Sweden, at the Åre ski station, close to the Norwegian
frontier, and goes to the Åreskutan hill in the skiing area.)
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Cape Horn Island, South Patagonia,
looking towards the sea
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Cape Horn Island, South Patagonia,
looking towards the lighthouse
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Rudimental funicular. Connects the sea
(landing stage for small boats)
with the lighthouse on top of the hill
(Photos: Christian Buisson)
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