The Mysterious Edge of the Earth

2020 marks the 500th anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan's discovery of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.

In Argentina and Chile, Tierra del Fuego is called "The edge of the world". For centuries, travelers believed there was nothing beyond these rocks blown by fierce winds, ice caps of mountains, and the endless ocean. The archipelago was named in 1520 by Ferdinand Magellan. The expedition of the Portuguese navigator came here in search of the shortest sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and found inhospitable lands, illuminated at night by scattered mysterious lights. Magellan chose the name meaning the land of Fire - Tierra del Fuego – having assumed that the sources of light on the coast were forest fires. Later it turned out that the unfriendly "edge of the Earth" was inhabited, and the mysterious lights were nothing more than the fires of the aborigines.

About 10,000 years ago, Tierra del Fuego became home to people, and even earlier - to animals: sea lions, seals, guanacos, foxes. Thousands of seabirds have chosen the inaccessible rocks for nesting. To preserve the unique fauna of the archipelago, the southernmost national park of the planet was created here in 1960. The exhibition "The Mysterious Edge of the Earth" will feature the brightest representatives of Tierra del Fuego: 

• the culpeo - the largest among the foxes of South America,
• the indigenous tuco-tuco,
• wandering albatrosses with a wingspan over 3 m,
• unique Magellan geese,
• the Andean condor 
• the charming guanaco.

Tierra del Fuego is neither Magellan's first, nor it is his last discovery. The exhibition will tell you a story of a poor Portuguese nobleman becoming a famous navigator, while his spice expedition became a legend of the Great Geographical Discoveries - the triumph of spirit and the saga of courage at the cost of hundreds of human lives.