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Maps of South America

The Carbajal Valley near Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago and a spur of the Andes, South America's most significant geographical feature.
Image: Andrew Shiva

 

Map of South America


Political Map of South America

The map of South America shows the countries of South America with international borders, national capitals, major cities, rivers, and lakes.

You are free to use the above map for educational and similar purposes; if you publish it online or in print, you need to credit the Nations Online Project as the source.

Major geographical features of South America

List of the main physical regions of the South American continent.



Islands
The continent includes the Falkland Islands, an archipelago of more than 100 islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, an overseas territory of the UK since January 1833, claimed by Argentina.


Easter Island (Isla de Pascua; Rapa Nui) is the easternmost island of Polynesia in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The Chilean dependency lies more than 3,700 km (2,300 mi) west of the coast of Chile.
The island is famous for its nearly 900 monumental statues, the Moai, created by the islanders between the 13th and 16th centuries.


The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean on the equator, about 1,000 km (620 miles) west of Ecuador's coast. The Galapagos Islands are known for their large number of endemic species, which Charles Darwin studied in the 19th century. He published the results of his studies in his famous book "The Origin of Species." Today, the Galápagos Islands are a World Heritage Site.


Tierra del Fuego
The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego forms the southern tip of the South American continent. Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the largest island in South America, is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan.



Mountains
The highest point in South America is Mount Aconcagua (6,962 m; 22,840 ft), located in the Andes Mountain Range in Argentina.

The Andes are a continental mountain range in western South America, the longest mountain range in the world. The various Cordilleras of the Andes stretch for more than 8,600 km along the continent's west coast, crossing seven countries.

The Andes were formed by plate tectonics, the collision of two crustal plates. The denser oceanic Nazca plate had pushed under the lighter continental South American plate and formed a subduction zone. In the process, the Nazca plate is pushed downward, creating a trench, and the continental crust of South America is pushed upward, creating the Andes mountain range.
The subduction zone is an area of intense volcanic activity; it forms the eastern section of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The subduction zone of South America is one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions. ^[USGS]


Altiplano
The Altiplano (High Plateau) is a high-altitude tableland in the Andes mountain range shared mainly between Peru and Bolivia, with some areas in Chile. The plateau lies at an average altitude of about 3,750 m (12,300 feet), grasses and shrubs dominate the landscape. The Altiplano is the site of Lake Titicaca and the Salar de Uyuni (see below). The Altiplano is also Bolivia's most densely populated region. La Paz, Bolivia's second-largest city and administrative capital, is located on the Altiplano.


Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco (Quechua: Hunting Land) in the interior of the South American continent is a rather sparsely populated subtropical semiarid alluvial lowland in western Paraguay and northern Argentina.


Llanos
The Llanos (Spanish: "Plains") are a vast tropical grassy plain east of the Andes Mountains in Colombia and Venezuela in northwestern South America.


Pampas
The Pampas (Quechua: flat surface area) is a vast area of nearly treeless and fertile grasslands in southeastern South America.


Pantanal
The Pantanal is an extensive tropical seasonal wetland and savanna ecoregion at the headwaters of the Paraguay River in southwestern Brazil; it is the world's largest tropical wetland area.


Patagonia
Patagonia is a plateau in the southern part of South America; it covers a vast area from the Colorado River in central Argentina to the Strait of Magellan and from the eastern foothills of the Andes to the Atlantic coast.



Rivers
Major rivers are the Amazon River (Amazonas) with its tributaries Rio Madeira, Rio Negro, and Rio Xingu, Rio Magdalena, Rio Orinoco. The Amazon River is the largest river by discharge of water in the world.

The Tocantins River, São Francisco River, and Rio Paraná are not tributaries of the Amazon.



Lakes
Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela is an inlet of the Caribbean Sea and the largest lake in South America.
Lake Titicaca in the Andes, on the border of Peru and Bolivia, is the continent's largest lake; it is also the highest navigable lake in the world at an altitude of 3,812 m (12,507 ft).


South America Geographic Extremes

Geographical highlights of South America: highest point, deepest point, longest mountain range, etc.

The highest point in South America is Aconcagua at 6,960.8 meters; it is the highest mountain in the Americas and the highest peak outside of Asia.

The lowest point of South America, at -105 m, is Laguna del Carbón, a salt lake in Santa Cruz province of Argentina.

The Amazon River is the largest river by water discharge and the second-longest river system in the world after the Nile.

Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia, is the continent's largest lake; it is also the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,812 m (12,507 ft).


The extreme points of the South American mainland.

The northernmost point is at Punta Gallinas, a cape at the tip of the Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia.

The southernmost point of the mainland is at Cape Froward on the southern tip of the Brunswick Peninsula at the northern shores of the Magellan Strait in Chile. The southernmost point of the continent is at treacherous Cape Horn.

The westernmost point is at Punta Pariña, a cape in Piura Region in northwestern Peru.

The easternmost point is at Ponta do Seixas, also known as Cape Branco in Brazil's Paraíba state near its provincial capital João Pessoa.

Famous World Heritage Sites in South America

There are over 70 World Heritage Sites in South America. ^[WP]


Brasília
Among the most famous World Heritage Sites in South America is certainly Brasilia , the planned city and capital of Brazil.
Brasília, the new capital, was built in the center of Brazil according to the plans of urban planner Lucio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer. The futuristic city was inaugurated on 21 April 1960.


Cuzco
The City of Cuzco in the Peruvian Andes developed under the Inca king Pachacutec to become the core of the Inca Empire in the 15th century.


Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands , a province of Ecuador, is an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean. Galápagos is known as a unique 'living museum and showcase of evolution.' The islands became famous through Charles Darwin. His theory of evolution is based mainly on observations he made during his five-week stay on the archipelago.


Iguaçu National Park
The Iguaçu National Park is located in the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Misiones Province of Argentina. The park with subtropical rainforest surrounds the Iguazu Falls, one of the largest and most spectacular waterfalls in the world.


Machu Picchu
The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu was built during the middle of the 15th century and abandoned approximately 100 years later. Located 2,430 meters above sea level in the Peruvian Andes, the urban complex is considered the most important legacy of the Inca civilization, but its exact former use remains a mystery.


Nazca
Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa are a group of gigantic geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. The lines were scratched on the ground's surface between 500 BCE and 500 CE. The Nazca Lines are among archaeological mysteries because of their number, nature, size, and continuity.


Quito
The City of Quito was founded in the 16th century on the ruins of an Inca city; it is the best-preserved, least-altered historic urban center in Latin America.


Rio de Janeiro
The World Heritage Site Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea includes the natural and structural elements that have shaped Rio de Janeiro's urban landscape, such as the Tijuca Massif, the Sugarloaf Mountain, Corcovado Hill with the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, the Botanical Gardens founded in 1808, and the designed landscapes along Copacabana Bay.

 

The map shows the location of the following major cities in South America.



Major Argentine Cities:
Capital city: Buenos Aires
Bahía Blanca, Comodoro Rivadavia, Córdoba, Río Gallegos, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Resistencia, Rosario, Salta, San Carlos de Bariloche, San Miguel de Tucumán, Santa Fe and Ushuaia.

Major Bolivian Cities
Capital city: La Paz
Cochabamba, Potosí, Santa Cruz, Sucre and Trinidad

Major Brazilian Cities:
Capital city: Brasília
Aracaju, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Boa Vista, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Macapá, Maceió, Manaus, Natal, Palmas, Pôrto Alegre, Pôrto Velho, Recife, Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Santarém, Santos, São Luís, São Paulo, Teresina, Uberlândia and Vitória.

Major Chilean Cities
Capital city: Santiago
Antofagasta, Arica, Concepción, Iquique, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and Valparaíso.

Major Colombian Cities
Capital city: Bogotá
Barranquilla, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín

Major Ecuadorian Cities
Capital city: Quito
Cuenca and Guayaquil.

Major Peruvian Cities
Capital city: Lima
Arequipa, Cusco, Huánuco, Iquitos, Piura and Trujillo.

Major Venezuelan Cities
Capital city: Caracas
Barquisimeto, Ciudad Guayana, Maracaibo, San Cristóbal and Valencia.

Other cities:
Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana; Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname; Cayenne, the capital city of French Guiana (France); Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.