Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Declared in 1964, it protects the highest coastal mountain massif in the world: its snow peaks, above 5,700 metres, rise barely 42 km as the crow flies from the Caribbean, producing within a minimal span of ground practically every climatic belt between sea level and tropical high mountain. It has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1979 and is sacred ground to four indigenous peoples — the Kogui, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuamo — direct descendants of the pre-Columbian Tayrona civilisation, who hold the sierra to be the heart of the world and still practise there a traditional system of government and spiritual authority legally recognised by the Colombian state.