The Country Chile

Chile, officially called ‘República de Chile’, is a republic in the southwest of South America. It borders on Peru in the north, Bolivia and Argentina in the east, and the Pacific Ocean is its border in the south and the west.

The country has an extraordinary length of 4300 kilometres from north to south; its average latitude is 180 kilometres. Chile’s south includes numerous islands and stretches down to Patagonia, from the island of Chiloé to Cape Horn, the southernmost point on the South American continent.

Among the well-known islands are the Archipelago de los Chonos, Wellington Island and the western part of Tierra del Fuego. Just off the coast are the islands of San Felix and San Ambrosio, the JuanFernández Islands (to which Robinson Crusoe Island belongs), Easter Island and Isla Sala y Gómez in the southern part of the South Pacific, all belonging to Chile.

The total area of the country is 756 626 square kilometres, and its population is 15.8 million. Chile also claims part of the Antarctic. Santiago is Chile’s capital and the country’s biggest city with 4.6 million inhabitants (2002).