Chile's Massive Swimming Pool: Bigger Than 20 Olympics

Picture a swimming pool so massive you could literally sail a boat across it. That's not a fever dream—it's the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile, which once held the record for the world's largest swimming pool.

This aquatic monster stretches over a kilometer long (1,013 meters to be exact), making your local Olympic pool look like a bathtub. At its deepest point, it plunges 35 meters down—that's deeper than a 10-story building is tall.

How Big Are We Actually Talking?

The numbers barely capture the absurdity of this thing. To put the scale in perspective:

• It holds 250 million liters of water (66 million gallons)
• You could fit more than 6,000 standard backyard pools inside it
• It cost $1.5 billion to build and takes $4 million annually just to maintain
• The pool is literally visible from space on Google Maps

The resort sits on Chile's coast in Algarrobo, about 100 km west of Santiago. Ironically, the Pacific Ocean is right there, but ocean water tends to be cold and murky. So they built their own ocean instead.

Crystal Clear Technology

Here's the really clever part: the pool uses a computer-controlled suction and filtration system that pulls water directly from the Pacific, filters it, and keeps it crystal clear. The water stays about 9°C warmer than the actual ocean too.

You can genuinely sail small boats, kayak, or even scuba dive in this thing. It's not just a pool—it's a navigable body of water with beaches, lagoons, and different zones.

The Record That Didn't Last

When San Alfonso del Mar opened in 2006, it absolutely crushed the previous record and earned its Guinness World Record. For nearly a decade, nothing came close.

Then Egypt said "hold my pyramid" and built the Citystars Sharm El Sheikh pool in 2015, which is even larger. The record has bounced around since, with pools in Dubai eventually taking the crown.

But here's the thing: San Alfonso del Mar doesn't really care. It's still spectacularly massive, still operational, and still one of the most ridiculously over-the-top resort amenities on the planet.

The pool remains a testament to what happens when engineers ask "could we?" without pausing to consider "should we?" The answer, apparently, is you build a sailboat-ready swimming pool next to an actual ocean and charge people for the privilege of swimming in the fake one.

Sometimes humanity's excess is just beautifully, absurdly entertaining.