Achaches lookout, Valley of the Moon, Chile

© Ignacio Palacios/Getty Image

Fly me to the moon. Achaches lookout, Valley of the Moon, Chile

Valley of the Moon, also known as El Valle de la Luna, located in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile, in one of the very driest places on earth. The valley itself hasn’t seen a single drop of rain in hundreds of years and is remarkable for its sculpted spires and scalloped walls of red earth, frosted with white saline deposits and outcrops. In 1982, El Valle de la Luna was declared a nature sanctuary for its stunning untouched habitat and its peculiar lunar-like terrain. The terrain is harsh and alien enough to have served as testing grounds for the Mars Rover missions.