In 2006 the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile, unveiled the world’s largest swimming pool containing more than 66 million gallons of temperate water stretching over 1000m (more than 20 Olympic size pools), directly adjacent to the sea.
The enormous man-made pool, is not only long, but deep. It holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s deepest at 35 m and has an up keep costs of £2 000 000 annually. The Resort itself is located along a broad, open and unprotected beach with the primary goal of creating an urban maritime leisure space. The swimming pool was at the core of the resort’s development strategy creating an alternative to the cold sea water that is a result of the Humboldt Current, which carries cold water from South America’s antarctic tip along its entire western seaboard. The development also offers a social alternative to the regions maritime activities of sailing and navigation.
