Chile is the longest country in the world, north to south, covering the equivalent of the distance from Norway to Morocco, or New York to Los Angeles. It stretches along 4,300km of the South American continent, between the Pacific Ocean and the high ranges of the Andes mountains, encompassing a huge variety of climates and ecosystems.
To the north lies the parched plateau of the Atacama Desert, which is the driest in the world, and contains minerals like copper. The central region, bathed in a Mediterranean climate, is the most populated and is where most wine production is concentrated. Southern Chile is a more temperate land of forests, pastures, lakes and volcanoes, with an Alpine climate that often brings winter snows. While the southern coast is cut into a myriad of fjords, inlets, islands and peninsulas, the wild reaches of Chilean Patagonia are home to glaciers and ice fields.
Also under Chilean sovereignty are Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and Isla Sala y Gómez, in the Pacific. Chile has a claim to a wedge of Antarctica, which overlaps with Argentine and British claims, but all have been frozen under the Antarctic treaty.