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Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean.
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Peru, country in western South America. Except for the Lake Titicaca basin in the southeast, its borders lie in sparsely populated zones. The boundaries with Colombia to the northeast and Brazil to the east traverse lower ranges or tropical forests, whereas the borders with Bolivia to the southeast, Chile to the south, and Ecuador to the northwest run across the high Andes. To the west, territorial waters, reaching 200 miles (320 km) into the Pacific Ocean, are claimed by Peru.
Peru is essentially a tropical country, with its northern tip nearly touching the Equator. Despite its tropical location, a great diversity of climates, ways of life, and economic activities is brought about by the extremes of elevation and by the southwest winds that sweep in across the cold Peru Current (or Humboldt Current), which flows along its Pacific shoreline. The immense difficulties of travel posed by the Andes have long impeded national unity. Iquitos, on the upper Amazon, lies only about 600 miles (965 km) northeast of Lima, the capital, but, before the airplane, travelers between the cities often chose a 7,000-mile (11,250-km) trip via the Amazon, the Atlantic and Caribbean, the Isthmus of Panama, and the Pacific, rather than the shorter mountain route.
Peru is traditionally described in terms of three broad longitudinal regions: the arid Costa on the west; the rugged Sierra, or Andes, system in the centre; and the wet and forested Amazonia—the tropical Amazon Basin—on the east.
Britannica Quiz
In the first volume of his Comentarios, Garcilaso offers one of the first answers as to why Peru is called “Peru”. According to “El Inca,” a group of Spanish explorers landed on the Pacific coast somewhere south of the equator, where they encountered a native fisherman at the mouth of a river.
Peru facts: Official web sites of Peru, links and information on Peru's art, culture, geography, history, travel and tourism, cities, the capital of Peru, airlines, embassies, tourist boards and newspapers.
History. Related pages. References. Other websites. Peru. Machu Picchu. Peru is a country in North, west South America. The capital of Peru is Lima. The ruins of Machu Picchu, the Andes mountains, and the source of the Amazon River are all found in Peru.
Peru is the third largest country in South America, after Brazil and Argentina. It is made up of a variety of landscapes, from mountains and beaches to deserts and rain forests. Most people...
The origin of Peru's name is a subject of some debate and intrigue. The word "Peru" was not used by the Incas themselves and is not of Quechua origin, which was the language of the Incas 1 . This suggests that the name came from outside the Incan civilization.
