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Arica is a port city at the far north of Chile, only 18 kilometres south of the border with Peru, and the capital of the Arica and Parinacota Region. It lies where the Azapa and Lluta valleys cross the Atacama Desert to the sea, and its mild weather has earned it the name of the city of the eternal spring.
Spanish settlers arrived under Lucas Martínez de Begazo in 1541. Arica was part of Peru after independence and was taken by Chile on 7 June 1880 during the War of the Pacific, and the Treaty of Lima confirmed it as Chilean in 1929. The city is linked by rail with Tacna in Peru and La Paz in Bolivia, and it serves as a free port for Bolivian trade.
The coast around Arica was home to the Chinchorro people, who made the oldest known artificial mummies, and their sites became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Visitors also come for the Morro, buildings from Gustave Eiffel's workshops and warm beaches.
The Morro de Arica is a coastal headland about 139 metres high at the southern edge of the city and its main landmark. It was the scene of the Battle of Arica on 7 June 1880 in the War of the Pacific, and its summit has monuments, a war museum and a balcony with views over the city and beaches.
The Cathedral of San Marcos faces Plaza Colón and was made in the workshops of Gustave Eiffel, ordered by Peruvian president José Balta when Arica was part of Peru. Its iron frame arrived from France in 1875, and the church opened in 1876 on the ruins of the old one destroyed by the 1868 earthquake.
The Casa de la Cultura is the former customs house of Arica, designed by the studio of Gustave Eiffel and built between 1871 and 1874 from prefabricated parts while the city was Peruvian. It served as the customs house until 1977, became the house of culture in 1991 and is a national monument.
The Arica–La Paz Railway Station stands in Arica's civic centre as a reminder of the line to Bolivia, built by Chile under the peace treaty of 1904 and opened in 1913. The building was declared a Historic Monument in 1990, kept regular service until 2001, and a German locomotive stands in front.
The San Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum was founded in 1967 and belongs to the University of Tarapacá. It is best known for its mummies of the Chinchorro culture, the oldest in the world, and at its entrance a palm garden holds 13 petroglyphs brought here in the 1970s to save them.
The Chinchorro were a fishing people of this coast between about 7000 and 1500 BC who began to mummify their dead by about 5050 BC, the oldest known artificial mummies in the world. Their settlements and cemeteries in the Arica and Parinacota Region became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.
The Azapa Valley runs inland a few kilometres from Arica and is famous for its olives, guavas and mangoes, with more than 10,000 years of history. Its dry hillsides are covered with geoglyphs in four groups, and its main village, San Miguel de Azapa, holds the archaeological museum of the region.
The Lluta River Wetland lies at the mouth of the Lluta, one of the few rivers of the region with enough water to reach the sea all year round. North of the city, it is one of the main attractions of Arica for watching local and migratory birds that gather here at certain times of the year.
The Alacrán Peninsula was once an island 460 metres off the coast, facing the Morro de Arica, until a causeway joined it to the mainland in 1964. Harpoons and fish hooks from its first inhabitants date to the 1st and 2nd centuries, and it was declared a National Monument with its old fort in 1985.
El Laucho Beach lies south of the city next to the Alacrán Peninsula, a small beach of white sand sheltered from the wind with very gentle waves. With La Lisera it is open for bathing all year round, which makes Arica the only city in Chile with two beaches open every day of the year.
La Lisera Beach is a popular beach of Arica set in a natural pool, with calm water all year and gardens around it since the 1960s. It was the first beach with coconut palms, takes its name from the many mullet, called lisas, in its water, and is best for snorkelling and rock fishing.
The Anzota Caves lie south of Corazones Beach, 12 kilometres from the centre of Arica, carved by water from rock of the Jurassic. The Chinchorro fishing people lived on this shore from about 6000 to 2000 BC, and today visitors come to walk, climb and see the caves, cliffs and coastal wildlife.
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