The world’s biggest national park is larger than most countries

15.09.2023 - 16:53 / edition.cnn.com

Editor’s Note: Monthly Ticket is a CNN Travel series that spotlights some of the most fascinating topics in the travel world. In September, we’re celebrating superlatives as we look at some of the world’s biggest, tallest and most expensive attractions and destinations.

National parks are really into big things, especially super-large landmarks.

Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal safeguards the southern slopes of Mt Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,849 meters (29,032 feet).

Venezuela’s Canaima National Park is home to Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfall at 979 meters (3,212 feet).

Sprawling across 400 square kilometers (154 square miles), Angkor Archaeological Park in Cambodia boasts the globe’s largest religious monument and largest ancient ruined metropolis.

But the largest thing about national parks may be their colossal size.

Larger than Delaware and roughly the same size as Wales, Yellowstone was considered huge when it became the world’s first national park in 1872.

However, an explosion of new protected areas in the late 20th and early 21st centuries put the older generation of national parks to shame when it comes to size. Some of the newbies are more than 50 times bigger than Yellowstone.

Here’s a look at the largest parks on each continent.

Sprawling across nearly half of the world’s largest island, Northeast Greenland National Park is currently the globe’s single largest national park and biggest land-based protected area.

It’s hard to wrap your brain around its sheer size – 972,000 square kilometers (375,000 square miles) – which makes it larger than all but 29 of the United Nations’ member states.

The vast Greenland Ice Sheet comprises most of the park, but there’s also a long, rugged coastline that’s home to musk oxen, polar bears and many other Arctic creatures.

The best way to reach the park from Ittoqqortoormiit, the nearest town, “is by boat during the summer, in the winter by dogsled with our local hunters,” says Mette Pike Barselajsen of Nanu Travel, which offers guided trips to East Greenland.

How crowded is Yellowstone? Nearly 1 million people visited in July

South America’s largest parks are found in the continent’s least-populated regions – the Amazon and Patagonia.

The reigning champ is Chiribiquete National Parkin southeast Colombia (43,000 square kilometers/17,000 square miles). Protecting a massive tract of Amazon rainforest, tepui flat-topped mountains and wild rivers, the park looks like something out of “Jurassic Park” rather than a modern landscape.

There may not be dinosaurs, but the place is inhabited by other apex predators.

Called the “Maloca (Longhouse) of the Jaguar” by the local indigenous people, Chiribiquete