Geography
Located on the Brunswick Peninsula. Punta Arenas is among the largest cities in the entire Patagonian Region. In 2002, it had a population of 120,000. It is roughly 1418.4 km from the coast of Antarctica.
The Magallanes region is considered part of Chilean Patagonia. Magallanes is Spanish for Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who, while circumnavigating the earth for Spain, passed close to the present site of Punta Arenas in 1520. Early English navigational documents referred to its location as "Sandy Point".
The city proper is located on the northeastern shore of Brunswick Peninsula. Besides the eastern shore, with the settlements of Guairabo, Rio Amarillo and Punta San Juan, the peninsula is largely uninhabited. The municipality (commune) of Punta Arenas includes all of Brunswick Peninsula, as well as all islands west of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego and north of Cockburn Channel and Magdalena Channel. The largest of those are:
- Santa Inés Island
- Desolación Island
- Dawson Island
- Aracena Island
- Clarence Island
- Carlos Island
- Wickham Island
Except Dawson Island, with a population of about 301 in 2002, the islands are largely uninhabited. Clarence Island had a population of just five.
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