Arequipa, Peru

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Arequipa, the capital of departament of Arequipa, is the most important city of southern Peru. It stands at the foot of the snow-capped volcano El Misti. Arequipa has many fine colonial-era Spanish buildings built of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock used extensively in the construction of the city, from which it gets its nickname La Ciudad Blanca ("the white city"). The city is located at an altitude of 2,380 meters in the Peruvian Andes. Archaeological findings indicate the fertile valley in which Arequipa is situated has been occupied back to 5000 – 6000 BC. In the 15th century, the region, then occupied by Aymara Indians, was conquered by the Incas and served as an important supplier of agrarian products to the Inca Empire. The modern city of Arequipa was founded on August 15, 1540, by Garci Manuel de Carbajal, an emissary of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro. The city's name comes from the Quechua phrase "Arequipai" which means "Yes, stay". Arequipa Cathedral, Plaza de ArmasArequipa remained relatively isolated during colonial and early republican times, but that changed in 1870 when a railroad to the coastal port of Tacna was inaugurated, opening trade via the Pacific Ocean. Arequipa served as a bastion of nationalism during Peru's struggle for independence in the early 19th century. Later, it served as a rallying point during the War of the Pacific (1879 – 1883) with Chile. UNESCO has declared the historical center of Arequipa a World Heritage Site. On June 23, 2001, Arequipa was badly damaged by an earthquake of 7.9 on the Richter scale. In June 2002, Arequipa was completely paralyzed for a week by strikes and riots in protest of the privatization of two regional electricity-generating plants. The demonstrations were seen as a manifestation of increasing anti-globalization sentiments in South America.

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