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Arequipa is Peru's second-largest city, set in the southern Andes beneath the El Misti volcano and famous for its UNESCO-listed colonial centre of pale volcanic sillar stone, home to the Santa Catalina Monastery, the Basilica Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas and the Juanita mummy. The Spanish founded it on 15 August 1540 on the banks of the Chili River, at about 2,330 metres.
The historic centre, a World Heritage Site since 2000, blends European and native styles in sillar walls, vaults and carved Baroque facades, best seen at the Jesuit Iglesia de la Compañía. Around it stand colonial houses such as the Casa del Moral and the Casa Goyeneche, the Franciscan Recoleta with its old library, and the Museo Santuarios Andinos, home of the Juanita mummy found on Ampato in 1995.
Beyond the centre, the Mirador de Yanahuara looks across the city to El Misti, the 5,822-metre volcano that rises only 12 km away, and the countryside holds the 1621 Molino de Sabandía. Arequipa is also the gateway to the Colca Canyon, one of the world's deepest canyons, about 160 km to the north-west.
The Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa is a Dominican convent consecrated in 1579 that covers 20,000 square metres, a small walled city of narrow streets in the heart of the historic centre. Built of white and pink sillar stone from Chachani and Misti, it is still home to cloistered nuns.
The Plaza de Armas de Arequipa is the main square where the city was founded in 1540, framed by the cathedral on its north side and by arcaded portales on the others. The Iglesia de la Compañía stands at its south-east corner, and a bronze fountain marks the centre of the square.
The Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa fills the whole north side of the Plaza de Armas and is the seat of the archbishop. Rebuilt in neoclassical style after a great fire in 1844, its sillar facade has 70 columns, and a tower that fell in the 2001 earthquake was rebuilt by 2002.
The Iglesia de la Compañía in Arequipa is a Jesuit church built from 1590 to 1699 beside the Plaza de Armas, famed for its main facade, a masterpiece of Andean mestizo Baroque carved in sillar. Inside are gilded wooden altarpieces and the San Ignacio chapel, painted with tropical plants and animals.
The Museo Santuarios Andinos in Arequipa is the archaeological museum that keeps the Juanita mummy, found on Ampato volcano in 1995 by José Chávez and Johan Reinhard. Founded in 1996, it also shows Inca offerings from high mountain shrines, from textiles and ceramics to gold and silver figurines.
The Casa del Moral in Arequipa is a large mansion built around 1730 and one of the best-preserved examples of Andean Baroque civil architecture in Peru. It is named after the old mulberry tree in its main patio, and inside are Cusco School paintings and a library of over 3,000 books.
The Recoleta Monastery in Arequipa is a Franciscan convent founded in 1648 whose four cloisters have held a museum since 1978. Its 17 rooms show archaeological, religious, ethnographic and scientific collections, and its library keeps more than 25,000 volumes from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Casa Goyeneche, also called the Palacio de Goyeneche, is one of the best-known mansions in Arequipa, rebuilt by the architect Lucas Poblete and finished in 1840 for Bishop Goyeneche. It stands on a plot from the city's first street plan and is now a museum of Peru's Central Reserve Bank.
El Misti is the 5,822-metre volcano that rises just 12 km from Arequipa, its steep cone the backdrop to almost every view of the city. Its last major eruptions were 2,000 years ago and in 1440 to 1470 AD, and it is watched closely as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
The Mirador de Yanahuara is a viewpoint in the old district of Yanahuara, 2 km from the centre of Arequipa, where visitors gather to look over the city to El Misti and the other volcanoes. The district's streets of white sillar houses have been a protected heritage zone since 1972.
The Molino de Sabandía is a sillar stone mill built in 1621 in Sabandía, a traditional village 3 km from Arequipa, and the town's main attraction. It once ground wheat, maize and other grains for the valley, and the village streets still keep houses from colonial and republican times.
The Colca Canyon, about 160 km north-west of Arequipa, is one of the deepest canyons in the world at about 3,270 metres. Its valley is farmed on pre-Inca stepped terraces by Collagua and Cabana people, and it is the third most visited tourist destination in Peru, with about 120,000 visitors a year.
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