Humberstone, Chile, Abandoned saltpeter mining town in Atacama Desert, northern Chile.
Humberstone stands as a preserved industrial settlement in the Atacama Desert, featuring worker housing, administrative buildings, processing facilities, and community spaces that showcase early 20th-century mining town infrastructure.
Founded in the 1870s during Chile's nitrate boom, the town reached its peak around 1910 producing over three million tons annually before declining with synthetic fertilizer development and closing permanently in 1960.
The town represents a multicultural community where European and South American workers lived together, using company tokens called fichas for purchases while enjoying theaters, schools, and sports facilities within the controlled settlement.
Located 29 miles (47 kilometers) east of Iquique along Route 5, the site welcomes visitors from 9 am to 7 pm with marked pathways, informational panels, and a small museum documenting saltpeter mining history.
The settlement preserves rows of brightly painted worker houses, rusted extraction machinery, and original classroom furnishings that remain undisturbed since the 1960s abandonment, earning UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in 2005.
GPS coordinates: -20.20806,-69.79472
Latest update: November 27, 2025 20:54
This collection includes abandoned cities, industrial facilities and historic sites across multiple continents. Empty buildings, decaying streets and left-behind objects tell the stories of people who once lived and worked there. The reasons for abandonment vary: industrial decline led to the closure of factories and mines, natural disasters forced entire communities to relocate, military conflicts made areas uninhabitable, and economic changes caused once-thriving settlements to empty. Today the structures stand silent while vegetation slowly reclaims the buildings and streets. Visitors find traces of past eras: abandoned schools with textbooks still on desks, decommissioned power plants with rusting machinery, deserted villages with crumbling houses. These places document social, economic and political developments and offer insights into different chapters of industrial history, urban development and the effects of human decisions on inhabited spaces.
This collection guides travelers to locations that remain outside mainstream tourism circuits. The selection includes natural sites and cultural places that receive limited visitor attention. These destinations provide opportunities to observe local daily life and regional traditions without commercial tourism infrastructure.
The territories of Chile stretch from the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, featuring national parks, historic cities, lakes, and islands. The country has active volcanoes, glaciers, fjords, geysers, ancient forests, and deserts. UNESCO sites include Valparaíso, the Churches of Chiloé, Easter Island with its moai, and the mining towns of Humberstone and Sewell.
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works
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Estadio Tierra de Campeones
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Clock Tower
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Santuario de la Naturaleza Cerro Dragón
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Municipal Theatre of Iquique
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Plaza Arturo Prat
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Pampa del Tamarugal National Reserve
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Mall Las Américas
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Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Iquique
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Museo Regional de Iquique
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Dreams casinos
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Casa Marinkovic
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Parroquia Convento San Antonio de Padua
36.3 km
Iglesia del Buen Pastor
35.9 km
Capilla del Hospital Dr. Ernesto Torres Galdames
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Santa Laura saltpeter works
197 m
Humberstone saltpeter works
260 m
Paseo Baquedano
37.4 km
Edificio Sociedad Protectora de Empleados de Tarapacá
37.4 km
Iglesia del Buen Pastor
35.9 km
La Tirana
20.3 km
Capilla y glorieta del Hospital Dr. Ernesto Torres Galdames de Iquique
36 kmReviews
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