By Tony Dunnell
Peru Travel Expert, about.com
The Arequipa Region is Peru’s canyon country, a cacti-strewn landscape of deep-cut gorges, ice-capped volcanoes and hot springs. It’s also home to two of the deepest canyons in the world: Colca Canyon and Cotahuasi Canyon.
Cotahuasi Canyon (Cañón de Cotahuasi) could well
be the deepest canyon in the world. And the nearby Colca Canyon could
be the second deepest canyon in the world. Depending on who you ask…
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How Deep is Cotahuasi Canyon?
According to Geology.com,
Cotahuasi Canyon reaches a depth of approximately 3,354 meters (11,004
feet), making it the deepest canyon in the world. The creator of this
impressive canyon is the Cotahuasi River, a tributary of the Ocoña
River, which has continuously cut through the arid landscape over many,
many years.
At a depth of 3,270 m (10,725 feet), the nearby Colca
Canyon is the second deepest canyon in Peru and one of the deepest in
the world. The more easily accessible Colca Canyon is one of the most
popular tourist attractions in Peru, both for trekking and for viewing Andean condors, who glide in the canyon and nest in its walls.
Those that dispute Cotahuasi’s status as the deepest canyon in the
world typically argue in favor of Kali Gandaki Gorge in the Himalayas of
Nepal or the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet, China. The Kali
Gandaki Gorge has been measured at 5,571 meters (18,278 feet), and
Yarlung Tsangpo at about 5,000 meters (16,400 feet). Both, however, are
disputed due to the (arguably spurious) definition of rim height when
determining their respective canyon depths.
[post_ads]Other Famous Canyons on Earth and Beyond
The Grand Canyon
in the state of Arizona is probably the most famous canyon in the
world, but it cannot rival Cotahuasi Canyon in terms of sheer depth. The
Grand Canyon reaches a depth of about 1,857 meters (6,093 feet);
Cotahuasi, therefore, is almost twice as deep.
If we include the oceans, we can find some even deeper trenches. The Mariana Trench
in the western Pacific Ocean marks the deepest point in our planet’s
oceans, with a maximum known depth of 10,994 meters (36,070 feet) --
more than three times as deep as Cotahuasi Canyon.
The largest canyons on Mars, meanwhile, belong to the Valles Marineris canyon system. Here, the deepest canyons reach a depth of about 7,010 meters (23,000 feet).
Visiting Cotahuasi Canyon
Colca
Canyon is where the bulk of the tourist money ends up, mainly due to
its proximity to Arequipa and greater tourist infrastructure. Tours to
Colca typically require one or two days and are offered by all agencies
in Arequipa. Daily departures and plenty of tourist demand make visiting
Colca Canyon relatively straight forward.
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Adventurous travelers,
however, can head out to explore the deeper but much less popular
Cotahuasi Canyon. Tours to Cotahuasi often last for three to five days.
As such, you can expect to pay significantly more than you would when
visiting Colca Canyon. But if you’re the type of trekker who really
likes to get away from it all, the trip out to Cotahuasi is worth the
extra money.
And you also get to say you’ve seen -- and possibly trekked down -- the world’s deepest canyon…
