Serranía de Chiribiquete facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Serranía de Chiribiquete |
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Aerial view of Chiribiquete
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| Highest point | |
| Peak | Cerro Chiribiquete |
| Elevation | 800 m (2,600 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 125 km (78 mi) |
| Width | 30 km (19 mi) |
| Geography | |
 Serranía de Chiribiquete
Location in Colombia
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| Country | Colombia |
| State/Province | Caquetá, Guaviare |
| Official name: Chiribiquete National Park – “The Maloca of the Jaguar” | |
| Type: | Cultural and Natural |
| Criteria: | (iii), (ix), (x) |
| Designated: | 2018 |
| Reference #: | 1174 |
| Region: | South America |
The Serranía de Chiribiquete (say: Seh-rah-NEE-ah day Chee-ree-bee-KEH-teh) is a group of flat-topped mountains. You can find them in the Amazon Region of Colombia. These mountains are part of the western edge of the Guiana Shield, which is a very old geological area.
This special area is protected as a national park. It is home to unique animals, like the Chiribiquete emerald hummingbird. This hummingbird is endemic, meaning it lives only in this area and nowhere else in the world. The beautiful waterfall called Caño Paujil also starts in the Serranía de Chiribiquete.
Contents
Chiribiquete National Park: A Giant Protected Area
Chiribiquete National Park is the biggest national park in Colombia. It is also the largest tropical rainforest national park anywhere in the world! This huge park covers about 43,000 square kilometers (that's about 16,600 square miles).
Ancient Art on Rocks
This park is very important because it holds amazing ancient art. People long ago painted and carved pictures on the rocks. This is called rock art. Scientists have found more than 600,000 traces of this art. There are about 20,000 different petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings). Some of these pictures are super old, possibly from 20,000 years ago! People continued to make this art until the 16th century.
The first person to record these rock paintings was an American botanist named Richard Evans Schultes in the 1940s. Later, Thomas van der Hammen did more research. In 2014, a British filmmaker named Mike Slee and a Colombian explorer, Francisco Forero Bonell, filmed and photographed these paintings. You can see the Serranía de Chiribiquete in the 2015 documentary Colombia, magia salvaje, which Mike Slee helped make.
Becoming a World Heritage Site
On February 21, 2018, the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced something big. He said that Chiribiquete National Natural Park would get much larger. It expanded by 15,000 square kilometers (about 5,800 square miles).
Then, on July 2, 2018, something even more special happened. The park was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This means it's recognized as a place that is important to all of humanity.
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Pictograph, possibly an ancient horse
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Pictograph, showing an indigenous person
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Pictograph, possibly a mammal
See also
In Spanish: Sierra de Chiribiquete para niños
