AREQUIPA

Arequipa city Founded on August 15, 1540, by Manuel Garci de Carbajal, the city's name
comes from the Quechua phrase "Arequipa i" which means "Yes, stay". It's not just by chance
however that its name has held true throughout time; in the city streets, in its 'sillar' walls and in
the attitude of it's people you feel a peculiar energy, a strange impulse, inviting you to stay on in
the Arequipa city.

On the skirts of the western range of the Andes, at the foot of the Misti volcano, Arequipa (2,350
m.a.s.l.), Arequipa is the capital of the department of the same name. It is a beautiful city of
mansions, temples and convents built out of 'sillar' - a material of solidified volcanic rock -, and
distinguished by a unique architectural style. Arequipa is surrounded by magical countryside
giving it a refreshing, bucolic air.

On the Arequipa outskirts you'll find fascinating villages with stepped terraces dating from pre-
Inca times that are still used today by farmers from the districts of Chilina, Socabaya,
Paucarpata, Characato and Sabandia.

Arequipa is located in the south of Peru at an altitude of 2,335 meters above the sea level and
approximately at 1,000 kilometers from Lima, the Peruvian capital city. Arequipa is the second
largest and most important city in Peru.

Arequipa is settled in a plain ground surrounded by three great volcanoes of over five thousand
meters high. The Misti (5,825masl), a perfect cone mountain tuned into the tutelary volcano of
the city, works as a central landscape background for this large city and his history feeds the
Arequipenos pride.

http://www.arequipaperu.org/