If these frozen formations were named by more literal minds, we might know them as simply "reverse icicles." But the Andes, including this mountain pass rising above Chile"s Atacama Desert, were mapped by poetically inclined Spanish explorers. They likened formations like these to a congregation of penitent parishioners kneeling at mass: hence the common name "penitentes" for such packed-snow pinnacles.
A throng of ice and spires
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Ring of fire
-
The Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve in Siberia, Russia
-
Overlooking the Douro
-
Happy Halloween!
-
Joan charges Riverside Park
-
50 years of Earth Day
-
Maritime forest on Cumberland Island, Georgia
-
Happy Bee Day to you
-
Staircase of turquoise pools
-
Winter Olympics in Beijing
-
Arbor Day
-
The eloquence of elephants
-
Honoring those who served
-
New York City Marathon
-
International Rock Day
-
Rosa Parks Day
-
Hello, harbinger of spring
-
Here, fishy!
-
Sailing across the ice
-
Whales in winter
-
Mount Segla, Senja Island, Norway
-
San Francisco Bay salt flats
-
Go Fly a Kite Day
-
Islands that turned the tide
-
National Hispanic Heritage Month
-
Maloja, Switzerland
-
Hidden beauty in Thailand
-
Paris is photo-ready this week
-
St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland
-
World Poetry Day