Peru

Peru is a country in western South America on the Pacific Ocean, bordered by Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Chile. Its 1,285,216 km2 (496,225 sq mi) stretch from the dry coastal plain over the Andes to the Amazon rainforest.

Lima is the capital and largest city. Spanish is official, and Quechua, Aymara and other Indigenous languages are official where they predominate. The Caral–Supe civilization, the earliest in the Americas, was followed by the Nazca culture, the Moche, the Wari and Tiwanaku empires and finally the Inca Empire, the largest state of the pre-Columbian Americas. Spain conquered the region in the 16th century and governed most of its South American lands from Lima as the Viceroyalty of Peru, and the National University of San Marcos, founded there in 1551, began higher education in the Americas. Peru declared independence in 1821, and after the campaigns of José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar the battle of Ayacucho completed it in 1824.

The state is a unitary semi-presidential republic under the 1993 constitution. Mining provides most exports, chiefly copper, zinc, gold, lead and tin, and the Yanacocha mine in Cajamarca is the main source of gold. Farms grow quinoa, maca, avocados, blueberries, asparagus, coffee and cocoa, and more than 3,000 kinds of potatoes are grown in the country. Huascarán in the Andes is the highest peak at 6,768 m (22,205 ft), and Lake Titicaca, shared with Bolivia, is the largest lake in South America.

The Incas built Machu Picchu in the Cusco region, near the Sacred Valley, while Arequipa is known for its historic center and the Colca Canyon. Mario Vargas Llosa, a Nobel laureate, was a leading writer of the Latin American Boom, and Ricardo Palma, Ciro Alegría and José María Arguedas also shaped its literature. The charango, invented in colonial times, is the national instrument. Ceviche, anticuchos and pachamanca are classic dishes of a cuisine that blends Indigenous, Spanish, Chinese, African and Japanese influences. The women's volleyball team won Olympic silver in 1988.