Longest Country in the World: Chile

Chile’s length as a country depends on who you ask.

Chile stretches from near Visviri (it’s northernmost populated area) and the Tripartite border with Bolivia and Peru, south to Águila Islet of the Diego Ramirez Islands in the cold waters of the Drake Passage.

If you consider that Chile claims a piece of Antarctica, then it’s southern extremity continues all the way to the South Pole. This, of course, will give you a significantly longer length than what you may see referenced elsewhere.

Chile, from the northern border with Peru and Bolivia down to its southernmost island, is about 2700 miles or 4300 kilometers in length.

From the northern tip down to the South Pole increases that length to about 5000 miles or 8000 kilometers.

For comparison purposes, excluding Antarctica, Chile:

• would stretch from the Canadian/American border all the way to the end of Mexico
• is about the distance from Maine to San Diego, California
• is longer than the distance between Lisbon, Portugal and Moscow, Russia
• could easily provide a land bridge between the Eastern tip of Brazil and the west coast of Africa

You can see a comprehensive list of the extreme points of Chile on Wikipedia.

Posted June 10th, 2009 in Culture, History.