Ischigualasto allows us to make an incredible journey to the past, and lets us know about the origin of dinosaurs in the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era. This period started 250 million years ago when land characteristics were totally different, with tropical landscapes formed by rivers, lakes and swamps.

Ischigualasto Provincial Park has a huge area of 63.000 hectares, which includes a tourist circuit of 40 km that takes three hours to be completed.

The action of the wind which constantly blows in the area has eroded large compacted sandstones into different shapes. Ischigualasto’s continental sediments of the Triassic Period were formed 200 million years ago and a large number of fossils were buried in the soil strata. This makes Ischigualasto one of the richest fossil basins in the world.

Ischigualasto was declared a Provincial Park in 1971 by the government of the province of San Juan, due to its paleontological and scenic value.

William Sill was a famous American palaeontologist and researcher who worked intensively in the promotion of Ischigualasto, in order to make the park well-known worldwide, not only for the findings here, but also for its stunning landscapes. Thanks to all his work, Ischigualasto Park was declared as World Heritage Site in 2000 by the UNESCO.