World Heritage Identification Number: 1410
World Heritage since: 2013
Category: Natural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇲🇽 Mexico
Continent: Americas
UNESCO World Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
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El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve: A Landscape of Dramatic Contrasts and Scientific Interest
The El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, spans over 714,566 hectares in the Mexican states of Sonora and the Tohono O'odham Nation. This vast reserve presents a unique and visually striking landscape characterized by dramatic contrasts, making it a site of great scientific interest.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The 714,566 hectare site comprises two distinct parts: the dormant volcanic Pinacate Shield of black and red lava flows and desert pavements to the east, and, in the west, the Gran Altar Desert with its ever changing and varied sand dunes that can reach a height of 200 metres. This landscape of dramatic contrast notably features linear, star and dome dunes as well as several arid granite massifs, some as high as 650 metres. The dunes emerge like islands from the sea of sand and harbour distinct and highly diverse plant and wildlife communities, including endemic freshwater fish species and the endemic Sonoran Pronghorn, which is only to be found in northwestern Sonora and in southwestern Arizona (USA). Ten enormous, deep and almost perfectly circular craters, believed to have been formed by a combination of eruptions and collapses, also contribute to the dramatic beauty of the site whose exceptional combination of features are of great scientific interest. The site is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Encyclopedia Record: El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve
El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site managed by the federal government of Mexico, specifically by Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, in collaboration with the state governments of Sonora and the Tohono O'odham.Additional Site Details
Area: 714,566 hectares
(viii) — Outstanding example representing major earth stages
(x) — Contains most important habitats for biodiversity
Coordinates: 32 , -113.9166666667
Image
Richard Waitt, U.S. Geological Survey, Public domain
