Cerro Paranal, Mountain summit in Atacama Desert, Chile

Cerro Paranal is a mountain in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, 120 km south of Antofagasta and 80 km north of Taltal, 15 km inland and 5 km west of highway B-710. Its summit, now 2,635 m high, holds the Paranal Observatory, home to the Very Large Telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope.

Cerro Paranal's summit was a horizontal control point at 2,664 m before the observatory was built; it now stands at 2,635 m, a drop of 29 m. The site was chosen for its atmospheric and climatic conditions and its distance from artificial light and airborne dust. It now holds the Paranal Observatory, operated by the European Southern Observatory, with the Very Large Telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope.

This mountain is known globally among astronomers as home to one of the world's leading observatories. The location was chosen because the dry desert air provides exceptional conditions for studying the night sky.

The mountain sits about 15 kilometers inland from the Pacific coast and can be reached via highway B-710. The observatory itself is generally not open to the public, but the landscape and night sky in this region reward visitors interested in astronomy.

The mountain hosts the Very Large Telescope, one of the most advanced telescope systems in the world, capable of observing both visible and infrared light. This system consists of four separate reflecting telescopes that can work together to capture extremely fine details of distant objects.