The Most Beautiful Nature Sanctuaries in South America
7 places in 5 countries · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful nature sanctuaries in South America are Canaima National Park (Venezuela), Iguazú National Park (Argentina) and Ischigualasto Provincial Park (Argentina). The list covers 7 nature sanctuaries in 5 countries. Argentina has the most, with 3. Last updated 14 October 2026.
South America's nature sanctuaries protect a continent of extremes, from some of the oldest rock formations on Earth to volcanic islands that are still forming. Ancient sandstone plateaus rise above the rainforests of the Guiana Highlands, rivers pour off the edges of vast basalt flows, and arid basins in Argentina preserve the earliest chapters of the age of dinosaurs. Off the Pacific coast, isolation turned the Galápagos into a natural laboratory of evolution.
Canaima National Park in Venezuela is the land of the tepuis, flat-topped table mountains with sheer walls, and from one of them, Auyán-tepui, Angel Falls drops 979 metres, the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world. Iguazú National Park in Argentina protects the forest around hundreds of waterfalls along the Iguazú River, culminating in the Devil's Throat. The Galápagos National Park covers most of the islands where giant tortoises, marine iguanas and Darwin's finches evolved in isolation.
In Argentina's northwest, Ischigualasto Provincial Park, also called the Valley of the Moon, is one of the richest fossil sites of the Triassic period, where some of the oldest known dinosaurs were found; neighbouring Talampaya National Park cuts a canyon through towering red sandstone walls. Aparados da Serra in southern Brazil holds the Itaimbezinho canyon, a sheer cleft in the highland plateau, and Tayrona National Natural Park in Colombia lines the Caribbean coast with jungle beaches and granite boulders below the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canaima National Park | National park | Venezuela | ✓ |
| 2 | Iguazú National Park | National park | Argentina | ✓ |
| 3 | Ischigualasto Provincial Park | Protected area | Argentina | ✓ |
| 4 | Galápagos National Park | National park | Ecuador | ✓ |
| 5 | Talampaya National Park | National park | Argentina | ✓ |
| 6 | Aparados da Serra National Park | National park | Brazil | |
| 7 | Tayrona National Natural Park | National park | Colombia |
01 Canaima National Park
Parque Nacional Canaima
Venezuela5.319° N 61.795° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Image by Jrafave from Pixabay From the rim of Auyán-tepui falls Angel Falls, at 979 metres the highest waterfall in the world, dropping towards the Devil's Canyon; the Kukenán falls, also among the highest, pour from another tepui. Mount Roraima, where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet, is the tallest of the tepuis and the easiest to climb. On the summits, cut off from the lowlands for millions of years, grows a world of endemic plants, including carnivorous pitcher plants, sundews and bladderworts that catch insects to make up for the poor soil.
Did you know? Angel, his wife and two companions needed 11 days to climb down the tepui on foot after their plane's wheels sank into the marshy summit.
02 Iguazú National Park
Parque Nacional Iguazú
Argentina · 34.7 km from Foz do Iguaçu25.705° S 54.248° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Image by AndreaRochas from Pixabay About half of the river is swallowed by the Devil's Throat, a long, narrow chasm 80 to 90 metres wide into which the water thunders from three sides, throwing up a permanent column of spray. The Argentina–Brazil border runs through it. Roughly four-fifths of the falls lie on the Argentine side, which is why the park is the place to be close to them: raised walkways run above and below the cascades, one crosses the upper river for about a kilometre to stand directly over the Devil's Throat, and boats cross to San Martín Island.
Did you know? Eleanor Roosevelt is said to have exclaimed "Poor Niagara!" on seeing Iguazú, whose tallest drops are much higher than Niagara's roughly 50 metres.
03 Ischigualasto Provincial Park
Argentina30.117° S 67.912° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
M.Bustos · CC BY-SA 4.0 The appeal is the scenery that erosion has carved out of soft grey, green, purple and red sediments. Bands of colour run across the Valle Pintado, the Painted Valley; on a bare plain called the Cancha de Bochas lie dozens of near-perfect stone spheres, concretions weathered out of the clay like balls left after a game; the Submarine rises from the flat ground like a conning tower; the Mushroom balances a wide cap on a slender stem. The Barrancas Coloradas, a long wall of red cliffs, close the horizon. The dark cone of Cerro Morado, an ancient volcanic chimney, can be climbed with a guide in about an hour for the view over the whole basin.
Did you know? Among the land predators, though, early dinosaurs ruled: herrerasaurids make up about 72 percent of the carnivores recovered.
04 Galápagos National Park
Parque nacional Galápagos
Ecuador0.333° S 90.000° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Jonathan Green · CC BY 4.0 What makes the park unlike anywhere else is the animal life and its lack of fear. Marine iguanas, the only lizards in the world that feed in the sea, pile up on the lava to warm themselves after diving; giant tortoises graze in the highlands; flightless cormorants, Galápagos penguins, blue-footed boobies and, on Española, waved albatrosses breed within a few steps of the trail. At Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz, white-tip reef sharks cruise the shallows in groups.
Did you know? Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island tortoise, was found in 1971 and died in 2012; his preserved body is displayed in the park.
05 Talampaya National Park
Parque Nacional Talampaya
Argentina29.796° S 67.811° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
Gino Lucas T. · CC BY-SA 2.5 The beauty here is in the shapes the erosion has left standing. Along the canyon the walls break into pinnacles and columns that visitors have named after what they resemble: La Catedral, a façade of fluted spires that looks uncannily Gothic; El Monje, a lone tower shaped like a hooded monk; the Kings, the Chessboard, the Castle. Near the narrowest point, in the so-called Botanical Garden, a vertical chimney eroded into the wall throws back a startling echo, and in the shade grow the shrubs and trees of the high Monte desert. Condors circle the rim; guanacos, maras and foxes move across the open plain outside.
Did you know? The richest rock-art site, Los Pizarrones, is a single smooth slab of rock about 15 metres long whose surface is covered almost entirely with carved petroglyphs.
06 Aparados da Serra National Park
Parque Nacional de Aparados da Serra
Brazil29.192° S 50.098° W
Image by InaeMiranda from Pixabay Its centrepiece is the Itaimbezinho canyon: 5.8 km long, up to 600 m wide and as much as 720 m deep, with walls that drop almost vertically. They are built of stacked basalt flows — part of the Serra Geral volcanic formation of the Paraná–Etendeka igneous province, with layers of Botucatu sandstone between them — and the successive flows show as horizontal bands in the cliffs. Two waterfalls pour over the rim, the Véu de Noiva (Bride's Veil) and the Cachoeira das Andorinhas.
Did you know? Besides Itaimbezinho, the park takes in the Fortaleza, Malacara and Índios Coroados canyons.
07 Tayrona National Natural Park
Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona
Colombia · 4.5 km from Santa Marta11.283° N 74.183° W
Felipe Restrepo Acosta · CC BY-SA 4.0 The landscape changes as you move east. The western sector is dry tropical forest and cactus scrub; further east it turns to humid tropical forest, and higher up the slopes to cloud forest. The park records more than 770 plant species, around 300 birds and 108 mammals, among them one of the last populations of the endangered cotton-top tamarin. Offshore lie coral formations - around 110 coral species and over 400 fish have been recorded - and a marine life that rewards anyone who swims with a mask.
Did you know? The east is wet and the west dry because moist Caribbean trade winds slam into the Sierra Nevada and drop their rain on its eastern flanks.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful nature sanctuaries in South America?
- On our list, Canaima National Park (Venezuela) ranks first, followed by Iguazú National Park (Argentina) and Ischigualasto Provincial Park (Argentina).
- Which country has the most nature sanctuaries in South America?
- In our collection, the most come from Argentina (3), Brazil (1) and Colombia (1).
- How tall is Angel Falls?
- Angel Falls drops 979 metres from the edge of Auyán-tepui in Canaima National Park, with an uninterrupted fall of 807 metres. It is the highest waterfall in the world.
- Why is Ischigualasto important to palaeontologists?
- Its rocks preserve a nearly complete record of the Triassic period, including some of the earliest known dinosaurs, such as Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus. Together with Talampaya, it is a World Heritage site.
- How many waterfalls make up Iguazú Falls?
- Iguazú is a system of about 275 individual falls spread along nearly three kilometres of the Iguazú River. The number varies with the river's water level.
- How many nature sanctuaries are on this list in South America?
- The list covers 7 nature sanctuaries in 5 countries. Argentina has the most, with 3.