Torres del Paine National Park is one of Chile's largest and most important national parks, and a protected wilderness area. In 2006, it covered an area of approximately 242 242 ha. It is the third with more visits, of which about 75% correspond to foreign tourists, especially Europeans. It is located 112 km north of Puerto Natales and 312 km from the city of Punta Arenas.
It is one of eleven protected areas in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic region (along with four other national parks, three national reserves and three national monuments). Together, protected wilderness areas cover 51% of the region's surface area (6 728 744 ha). It is bordered to the north by Los Glaciares National Park, in Argentina.
It presents a great variety of natural environments: mountains (among which the Paine hill complex stands out -whose main peak reaches 3050 masl- the towers of Paine and the horns of Paine), valleys, rivers (such as the Paine river), lakes (emphasis the ones known as Grey, Pehoé, Nordenskjöld and Sarmiento), glaciers (Grey, Pingo, Tyndall and Geikie, belonging to the Patagonian Ice Field).
In a special edition of National Geographic, the towers of the Paine were chosen as the fifth most beautiful place in the world. 2? The park was selected as the eighth wonder of the world in 2013, after receiving more than five million votes in the contest held by the Virtual Tourist site.