This means they’re more than 150 times bigger than the Bonneville Salt Flats! Moreover, these great salt flats are hostile. That said, these salt flats cover an area of around 16,058 sq km (6,200 sq mi). It consists of many pans with sandy deserts in between. According to recent studies, modern Homo sapiens first began evolving in this region around 200,000 years ago! Technically, Makgadikgadi isn’t a single pan. Also one of the largest salt flats in the world, it’s all that’s left of the formerly massive Lake Makgadikgadi that dried up tens of thousands of years ago. Once the site of the world’s biggest island seas is Makgadikgadi Pan. You should avoid visiting during December and January, though, as the excessive rain can lead to tours and other events being canceled. During the dry season, you can drive over the desolate landscape to reach locations that are inaccessible during the wet season.

During the flooding season, it transforms into something really incredible: the world’s largest mirror. Salar de Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States and is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually.

When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó and Uru Uru, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa, and the larger Salar de Uyuni. Salar De Uyuni, the biggest and probably the most popular salt flat in the world, is located in southwest Bolivia near the crest of the Andes, at 3.650 meters (11,975 feet) above sea level and stretches for 10,582 sq km (4,086 sq mi). Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake.

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