Valle Fértil is a department of the province of

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

(

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

). Characterized by highly fertile landscapes and contains the

Ischigualasto Provincial Park Ischigualasto Provincial Park (), also called ''Valle de la Luna'' ("Valley of the Moon" or "Moon Valley"), due to its moon-like appearance, is a provincial protected area in the north-east of San Juan Province (Argentina), San Juan Province, nor ...

, also known as the ''Valley of the Moon'', which is visited by tourists from around the world.

Origin of the name

The Spaniards, upon their arrival, found the indigenous people referred to the area as "Chaj Nai--Paj", which means "green or fertile country of many rivers".

Tourism

The main attraction is

Ischigualasto Ischigualasto Provincial Park (), also called ''Valle de la Luna'' ("Valley of the Moon" or "Moon Valley"), due to its moon-like appearance, is a provincial protected area in the north-east of San Juan Province, north-western Argentina, limiting ...

, a strange landscape, in what may have been one of the most interesting stages of the earth's history, the Triassic period, the place known as the Valley of the Moon, for the apparent resemblance to a lunar landscape. It is a protected area for the preservation and study of strange geological formations,

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s. Departments of San Juan Province, Argentina {{SanJuanAR-geo-stub