60 pieces · NaturePhoto by Léo Castro on Unsplash (Unsplash License). An aerial view of the rainwater lagoons that pool between the white barchan dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, northeastern Brazil.
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Lagoons Between the Dunes — Lençóis Maranhenses
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Lagoons Between the Dunes — Lençóis Maranhenses
From the air it reads as a desert that someone has filled with swimming pools. It is not a desert. Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, on the Atlantic coast of Maranhão in northeastern Brazil, gets around 1,200 millimetres of rain a year — a desert, by definition, gets under 250. What makes it look arid is the sand: the Parnaíba and Preguiças rivers carry it down from the interior, the Atlantic wind drives it back inland as far as 50 kilometres, and the result is a field of barchan dunes standing up to 40 metres tall. The name means roughly "the bedsheets of Maranhão," which is what the white crests look like from above.
The lagoons are a timing trick. About 70 per cent of the year's rain falls between January and May, and a layer of impermeable rock sitting under the sand stops it draining away — so the valleys between the dunes fill with fresh water, pools up to 100 metres long and three metres deep, at peak covering as much as 41 per cent of the park. They are warm, between roughly 27.5°C and 32°C, and low in dissolved nutrients, and they are still alive: the wolf fish that lives in them burrows down into the wet mud and waits out the dry season, when the pools evaporate at up to a metre of depth a month. The park was protected on 2 June 1981 and covers 155,000 hectares behind 70 kilometres of coastline; in July 2024 UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list for its exceptional natural beauty.
As a jigsaw this one is all about edges rather than objects. There is no horizon and no sky — the whole frame is pattern, which means the usual trick of building the border first and working inward does not get you very far. What does work is the colour gradient inside each lagoon: every pool runs from a sand-coloured shallow rim through green to deep blue-black in the middle, so pieces sort naturally by which band of that gradient they carry. Start with the darkest water on the left and the green shelf along the bottom, then use the long sinuous dune crests as connectors. The blank white dune faces are the last third and the hardest — they are near-identical, and the only way in is the faint ripple texture and the soft shadow lines that tell you which way the slope was facing.
How to play
- Tap Play Lagoons Between the Dunes, Lençóis Maranhenses puzzle to open the puzzle board, then choose your piece count and difficulty.
- Drag pieces from the tray onto the board and snap them into place until the full image is complete. Works with mouse on desktop and touch on mobile.
- Use the Preview button on the play screen to peek at the full reference image whenever you need a hint.
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Lençóis Maranhenses and what am I actually looking at?
- It is a national park on the northeastern coast of Brazil, in the state of Maranhão, just east of the Baía de São José. The white shapes are coastal barchan sand dunes up to 40 metres tall, and the blue and green pools between them are freshwater lagoons formed by rainwater that cannot drain away.
- If it is covered in sand dunes, why is it not a desert?
- Because of the rainfall. The park receives about 1,200 millimetres of rain a year, while a desert by definition receives less than 250 millimetres. The sand is not a sign of drought — it is carried in by the Parnaíba and Preguiças rivers and then pushed up to 50 kilometres inland by the Atlantic wind.
- When are the lagoons full?
- Roughly 70 per cent of the annual rainfall arrives between January and May, and the lagoons fill during that rainy season, from about January through June. Once the dry season returns the pools evaporate quickly, losing as much as a metre of depth per month, so the same valleys can be empty sand later in the year.
- Is the park protected?
- Yes. It was protected on 2 June 1981 and covers 155,000 hectares, including 70 kilometres of Atlantic coastline. In July 2024 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It is also home to four species on Brazil's endangered list, among them the scarlet ibis and the neotropical otter.