Reserva Natural El Imposible
The Reserva Natural El Imposible is a national park in the Ahuachapán department in El Salvador .
description
The park was placed under special protection on January 1, 1989 and covers an area of 5000 hectares at an altitude of between 250 and 1425 meters. In 1992 the national park was included in the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its outstanding cultural importance and natural properties , together with the Cara Sucia National Park (categoría UICN II (Parque nacional)).
The highland sector of El Imposible preserves the largest contiguous forest in El Salvador. The archaeological finds go back to 160 BC. BC and are the earliest evidence of agricultural settlements in southern Mesoamerica . During the late classical period AD 600 to 900 it was a regional center of the Cotzumalhuapa culture . These and other prehistoric peoples took advantage of the rich natural resources of the varied environment in a narrow coastal strip of Barra de Santiago, including the sandy beaches, mangrove forests and floodplains that make up the volcanic highlands.
In the area of the park there are the sources of the rivers: San Francisco Menendez , El Corozo , Jencho , Mixtepe , Maishtapula , Izcanal , Ahuachapío and Guayapa .
Visitors
25 full-time park rangers are responsible for the protection of more than 500 plant species, over 100 species of mammals, 53 amphibian and reptile species, 285 bird species and over 5,000 species of butterflies. The rangers are supported by a team of 20 local tour guides who show visitors the special features. The annual number of visitors is around 8,000.
Individual evidence
- ↑ UNESCO Cara Sucia / El Imposible , accessed December 6, 2013.
- ↑ Joyce Kelly, An archaeological guide to northern Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador , University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, 324 pages
- ↑ Parque El Imposible on website SalvaNATURA (Spanish)
Coordinates: 13 ° 50 ′ 5.1 ″ N , 89 ° 56 ′ 8 ″ W.