Valle de la Luna (Bolivia)

Valle de la Luna, also called Killa Qhichwa or Moon Valley, is a protected municipal area of about 15 hectares roughly ten kilometers south of downtown La Paz, Bolivia, between the neighborhoods of Mallasa and Aranjuez. Its stark landscape of spires, craters, ditches and caves formed because the terrain is composed of soft clay and sandstone rather than solid rock, allowing erosion to wear away the upper slopes of the mountains and expose colors ranging from beige and light brown to deep red and dark violet depending on local mineral content. The site takes its popular name from astronaut Neil Armstrong, who compared its appearance to the lunar surface after his 1969 moon landing. It supports semiarid Andean wildlife such as viscachas and lizards among cacti and thorny scrub, and hosts annual Day of the Dead and Saint John's Eve celebrations.