The following is a list of some of the National Parks in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Wetlands/coastal

* Lagoons on Uruguay's east coast. Classified as a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

of international significance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on W ...

. * Laguna de rocha. Lagoon in Rocha. * Castillos Lagoon. Freshwater lagoon in Rocha. * Garzon Lagoon. Semi-freshwater lagoon in Rocha and Maldonado. * Santa Teresa National Park. Includes beaches, forests and the Fort of Santa Teresa. * Cabo Polonio. Includes beaches and sand dunes.

Central Hill Country

* Lunarejo Valley. Located between

Rivera Rivera () is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. The border with Brazil joins it with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, which is only a street away from it, at the north end of Route 5. Together, they form an urban area of aro ...

and Artigas (on the border with Brazil). Native grassland, ferns and hill scrub, with small pockets of sub-tropical vegetation in the valleys. * Quebrada de los Cuervos. Located near

Treinta y Tres Treinta y Tres () is the capital city of the Treinta y Tres Department in eastern Uruguay. Location The city is located on Route 8, on the north banks of Olimar Grande River. The city is almost surrounded by a populated rural area, a zone of ' ...

. Includes canyons and a sub-tropical forest in the bottom of the gorge. * Arequita National Park. Located in north of

Minas Minas or MINAS may refer to: People with the given name Minas * Menas of Ethiopia (died 1563) * Saint Menas (Minas, 285–309) * Minias of Florence (Minas, Miniato, died 250) * Minas Alozidis (born 1984), Greek hurdler * Minas Avetisyan (1928� ...

. Includes a large round

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

of volcanic rock and forests.

Uruguay River

* Esteros de Farrapos National Park. Includes 24 islands, covering 174.96 km². Classified under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Significance.

Caves

* Palace Cave in Flores. The geology dates from the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

period and is composed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, which formed during the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pal ...

. Classified as a National Park in 2013.

References

{{Uruguay topics *

National parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...