The ''Mano del Desierto'' is a large-scale sculpture of a hand located in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, about 60 km to the south and east of the city of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. After the Spanish American wars ...

, on the

Panamerican Highway The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

. The nearest point of reference is the "Ciudad Empresarial La Negra" (La Negra Business City). It lies between the 1309 and 1310 km marker points on the highway. The piece references the human rights violations perpetrated by the Pinochet regime.

Description

The sculpture was constructed by the Chilean sculptor at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea and level. Its exaggerated size is said to emphasize human vulnerability and helplessness. The work has a base of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

and

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

, and stands tall. Funded by Corporación Pro Antofagasta, a local booster organization, the sculpture was inaugurated on 28 March 1992. It has since become a point of interest for tourists traveling Route 5, which forms part of the

Pan-American Highway The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

. It is an easy victim of

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

and is therefore cleaned occasionally. To get to the sculpture from Antofagasta, take Route 28 going East until the road joins Route 5 at La Negra (industrial complex) (distance from Route 1 in Antofagasta to the junction at La Negra approximately ). Take Route 5 going South for another , where a dirt road turns right (West) towards the sculpture. The sculpture is from the main road. Clear signposts are placed on the road, although the sculpture can already be seen from quite a distance away.

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expan ...

takes viewers right up to the sculpture, with variou
views
from different directions.

References

External links

The Hand of the Desert – Chile’s massive sculpture
— Artwork description and photographs {{in lang, en
Corporación Pro Antofagasta

The giant hand buried in the Atacama Desert

Keep Up the High Five: La ''Mano Del Desierto'' in ''El Observatodo''

''Hand In The Desert'', Atlas Obscura
/ref> Outdoor sculptures in Chile 1992 sculptures Buildings and structures in Antofagasta Region Concrete sculptures in Chile Tourist attractions in Antofagasta Region Colossal statues

Description

See also

References

External links