9 Amazing Facts About Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni That Will Blow Your Mind (And #6 Even Surprises Locals!)

6. The Mysterious Salt Hotels

Even to residents, Salar de Uyuni's most amazing feature is the presence of hotels constructed totally from salt blocks. These architectural wonders seem to challenge accepted building wisdom by using salt from the flat itself for walls, floor, ceilings and even furniture. The fact that these hotels preserve structural integrity in face of seasonal flooding and high temperature fluctuations makes this even more amazing. The method of construction is cutting blocks of salt from the flat and glueing them together using a salt-water combination that hardens into a very robust building material. Using age-old techniques refined over decades, these hotels are kept constantly and partially rebuilt each following the rainy season.

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These salt hotels have an amazing degree of natural climate control shown by their remarkably constant interior temperature all year long. Modern conveniences have been deftly incorporated into these buildings without sacrificing their special quality or environmental viability. The hotels have evolved into living labs for designers researching sustainable building techniques in challenging surroundings. Now under study by worldwide construction professionals, local builders have created specialised procedures for strengthening salt constructions. Though none have attained the same degree of sophistication and endurance, the success of these salt hotels has motivated similar efforts in other parts of the world.