Chile
Capital: Santiago
Size: About 291,933 square miles (756,102 sq km).
Language: Spanish (with Mapudungun and other Indigenous languages too)
Currency: Chilean peso
Capital population: Santiago has about 6 million people (over 7 million in the metro area).
Population: About 19 million people.See the biggest cities →National animal: Huemul (a rare Andean deer, shown on the national coat of arms)
National flower: Copihue (the Chilean bellflower)
Climate
Very varied because Chile is long and thin: dry desert in the north, mild and rainy in the center, and cold and windy in the far south.
Main industries
Copper mining (the world's largest), fruit and wine, fishing, and forestry.
Top places for tourists
The Andes mountains, the Atacama Desert, mysterious Easter Island, and the wild lands of Patagonia.
Places of interest
The Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth, and some spots there have never had recorded rain.
A little history
Home to the Mapuche people, Chile was a Spanish colony and won its independence in 1818, led by heroes Bernardo O'Higgins and Jose de San Martin.
Fun fact
Easter Island, far out in the Pacific, is famous for its giant stone heads called moai, carved long ago by the Rapa Nui people.