File
number: chec0076 © South
American Pictures/ Peter Francis Chile:
wooden buildings in the town of María Elena in the Atacama desert near
Tocopilla. María Elena was established in the 1920s for work on the nearby
low grade sodium nitrate -caliche - chile saltpeter beds of the Atacama.
While similar towns lie abandoned in the desert as relics of the 19th C nitrate
boom, Maria Elena continues with a population of 7,600, a museum and houses unchanged
by the passage of time. |