Trinidad and Tobago

La Brea Pitch Lake

WHS Score 0.77 Votes 2 Average 1.0
La Brea Pitch Lake comprises the largest and most significant pitch lake (natural deposit of asphalt) in the world. It is over 70m deep. The lake lies at the intersection of two faults, which allows oil from a deep deposit to be forced up. The lighter elements in the oil evaporate under the hot tropical sun, leaving behind the heavier asphalt.
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Full Name
La Brea Pitch Lake (ID: 5645)
Country
Trinidad and Tobago
Status
On tentative list 2011 Site history
History of La Brea Pitch Lake
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UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
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UNESCO.org

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First published: 21/12/21.

Christravelblog

La Brea Pitch Lake

La Brea Pitch Lake (On tentative list)

La Brea Pitch Lake by Christravelblog

Ticking of WHS is one thing for me but also ticking of countries (I love lists) and with direct flights on KLM from Amsterdam to Trinidad & Tobago I just had to go. Of course also visiting the various TWHS.


How to get to the Pitch Lake

I would say: by car only. On Trinidad public transport is not reliable (except maybe to Maracas beach). Hiring a taxi for a fixed price will do the trick but do count on an easy 100 USD as Trinidad IS expensive! Probably it's better to hire a car for approximate 50 USD / day. You can combine a visit here to the Banwari Site (another TWHS).


The site

It's quite a large area with green around it and in the middle is the Pitch Lake itself. When I visited it was raining quite a lot so it was more a lake of water as that you could see the asphalt and pitch. On the edges you could and the guides even showed the liquid pitch. A visit takes an hour approximate if you do the walk with guide. Do NOT EVER go alone as you can get stuck. It's a dangerous place. At one side they still mine but it's not heavily mined. Interesting is that around the pitch lake there are neighborhoods and even in those places it just pops up everywhere. Also, everything is sinking so building is risky and roads are bumpy.

Should it be …

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