Location: in the South Centre of the Province of La Rioja, Department of General Lavalle.

Surface: 215000 hectares.

Distances from the Province's capital city or from neighbouring localities. Distance from La Rioja: 207 kilometres.

General description:
The reddish Canyon of the River Talampaya is one of the most notable natural wonders in Argentina. Although it is an attraction for thousands of tourists, this complete sample is one of the less represented native ecosystems in the National System of Protected Natural Areas: the mountain.

There are centenarian woods of locust trees along the canyon, enclosed between cliffs almost 100 metres high that confer the landscape a unique beauty. Condors seek refuge in here.

The profuse biodiversity present in such a deserted environment is amazing. Grey foxes, blacklegged seriia, (Chunga burmeisteri). small rheas and maras or Patagonian hares, amongst others, live in the extensive creosotebush areas or jarillales and broom fields. Bird species such as the cock sand, endiic in our country, find a warm haven in the area.

We surely must add the cultural importance to the natural value of the area, for numerous manifestations of the pre-Hispanic cultures that inhabited the zone about 1000 years ago, populate the reddish walls and rocks of Talampaya. Collective mortars, riains of aboriginal dwellings, and petrography of immeasurable age and great scientific value, add the mystery of the origins of man to the landscape.

A thirteen metre-long natural mural full of petrography engraved by the Indians, called The Big Blackboard, is perhaps the largest registered in Argentina thus far, along with others scattered around the site, which constitute a cultural patrimony of incalculable value that must be preserved perpetually for future generations.

Sedimentary deposits of the Permian and Triassic rich in fossils, especially of large amphibious and reptiles, crop out in the area. This gives the place a world-class relevance along with Ischigualasto, just a few kilometres away and one of the most important deposits of its kind in the world.

The deep canyons of the River Talampaya have cliffs rising up to 143 metres that come to a distance of only 80 metres on its narrower point.

The valleys full of curious figures shaped by erosion, and the colourful sedimentary stratums framed by the most beautiful desert setting, grant it with an unmatchable scenic importance. The wind and the water have eroded the rocks of the canyon giving thi peculiar and variegated shapes, which popular imagination has baptised as the Wise Man, The Cathedrals, The Towers, The Flying Dish, the Friar, etc. The so-called Lost City, a depression of approximately 2 kilometres in diameter, full of labyrinths and internal rivers, is an interesting formation.