Calchaquí Valley
valley
The Calchaquí Valley (Spanish: Valles Calchaquíes) is an area in the northwestern region of Argentina which crosses the provinces of Catamarca, Tucumán, Jujuy and Salta. It is best known for its contrast of colors and its unique geography that ranges from the mountain desert to the subtropical forest.
Geography
The Calchaquí Valley is a graben valley, oriented north–south, between the Sierra del Aconquija and Cumbres Calchaquíes (4177 m) ranges to the east and the Sierra de Quilmes (5468 m) to the west. These ranges are part of the Sierras Pampeanas, a series of mountain ranges which extend north and south through Northwestern Argentina, east of the Andes.
There are a number of valleys and rivers within the Calchaquí Valley that have their own name, such as the Quebrada del Toro (Gorge of the Bull), Valle de Lerma (Lerma Valley) near Salta city, the Quebrada de Escoipe formed by the Escoipe River, the Valle Encantado at the feet of the Cuesta del Obispo, the Quebrada de las Conchas of the Conchas River near Cafayate, the valley of the Santa María River, and the Calchaquí River itself. The headwaters of the Santa María River are in the Sierra de Quilmes, where it is named Colorado River. It joins the Calchaquí River to form the Conchas, which is a tributary of the Salado.
Ecology
Most of the Calchaquí Valley is part of the High Monte ecoregion, a semi-arid montane shrubland which lies between the eastern Sierras Pampeanas and the Andes. The eastward-facing slopes of the surrounding mountains intercept moisture-bearing winds from the east, which support the Southern Andean Yungas humid forests. The Central Andean puna subalpine and alpine grasslands cover the highest portions of the surrounding ranges.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q525820. VIAF identifies the subject as 248362591. The Library of Congress control number is sh95008585. Authority coordinates are -26.449, -65.976. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Calchaquí Valley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.