Patagonia Argentina: Ushuaia - Photos

Ushuaia and the meaning of the word.

Ushuaia, the capital of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and Islands of the South Atlantic, recives its name derived of the language Yamana that means "Bay that penetrates towards the west" or "bay penetrating to the west" or “interior port towards the west." It is located beside the Beagle Channel, surrounded by the mountainous Martial chain or Martial mounts, in a bay of singular beauty protected by the winds. Nowadays it has a population of approximately 55.700 inhabitants. The department of Ushuaia has a surface of 9.017 km2 (it includes Isla de los Estados and the Islands of the Beagle). The banks of the Beagle Channel and the Martial chain gives the natural mark on which expands this town. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. A unique landscape in Argentina, thanks to the combination of mountains, sea, glaciers and forests. It is the only city of Argentina that combines sea with mountain range. The capricious topography has generated an extremely picturesque city with colors and differences, accompanying the silhouette of the Andes that is clipped against the firmament.
Ushuaia, is not only a small city in the south end of the world, it’s nature, beauty and mysticism in its maximum expression. It is the most southern region in the planet, inspiration source and challenge, of myths, legends and adventures that still last for those that never stepped these lands or navigated the seas to the south of the South.

Ushuaia – Geography

Ushuaia is located in the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego, beside the Beagle Channel, approximately to the 55º south latitude and 68º longitude west of Greenwich. It has the privilege of being the southernmost city in the world, 54º 46’ S. Port Elizabeth, Southáfrica, at 33º 58' S, Hobart, in Tasmania at 43 º S, Invercargill in New Zeland, 46º 24' S, Punta Arenas, Chile, at 53º 09' S. The Beagle Channel takes the name of the ship that his discoverer commanded, the captain Robert Fitz Roy. Ushuaia rises on the northern margin of the channel, in the bottom of a wide bay that forms the Channel there towards the West.
It is in fact this circumstance that has originated its name in language yámana, “interior port towards the west"; just as Lucas Bridges narrates it.
The city of Ushuaia, capital of the province of Tierra del Fuego, extends in the hillside of the Martial mounts, this way denominated by the French expedition commanded by the captain Luis Fernando Martial in 1883. The mountain is parallell to the coast of the bay and its slope begins almost in its same bank, from what the city when climbing to the heights, is developed in a grandiose amphitheater that draws a wide arch, being prolonged towards the east, beyond the same city until the Beagle Channel, being clipped in the horizon, almost in its end, the Mount Olivia first and then, the mount Cinco Hermanos, of 1.318 and 1.280 elevation meters respectively. The Olivia is one of the characteristic symbols of the City. These mounts are ideal for the practice of the scaling, since they have abrupt walls, mainly in the proximities of their picks. None of these mounts is the highest in the Argentinean part of the Big Island. The Mount Alvear that is in the mountain range of the same name or the Mount Vinciguerra of the mountain range called the same, reaches the 1.430 meters approximately. These chains of mountains are in the south area of the Island, with their back to Ushuaia. They go approximately from east to west, almost parallel to the Beagle and they are towards the north of the National Route Nº 3, from the tract that extends from the frontier with Chile in Lapataia, National Park Tierra del Fuego, to the Fagnano Lake.
Going from Ushuaia throughout the Bay towards the mount Olivia, we see the Arroyo Grande located at 2 Km. of the city. Towards the north and continuing for the National Route Nº 3, after passing the mount Olivia, is the Valley of Tierra Mayor where a turbal of spectacular beauty extends.
By the opposite side of the city, that is to say, towards the west, the route continues towards the Lapataia Bay, which opens up in the north coast of the channel at about twenty kilometers of distance and its very close to the frontier with the neighbor country of Chile. This frontier also crosses the Roca lake. This bay is inside the National Park Tierra del Fuego and it is the southernmost point to which you arrive by car, being at the same time the beginning of the National Route Nº 3.
Towards the southeast, separated by the Beagle Channel, is the Navarino Island, Chile whose mountains are clearly visible from the Ushuaia Bay.

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