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Arequipa city

Photo credit: Valentín Ramírez

The city of Arequipa is the capital of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of around 800,000 it is the second most populous city of the country. Arequipa lies in the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 2,380 meters (7740 feet) above sea level, overseen by the snow-capped volcano El Misti. The city has many colonial-era Spanish buildings built of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock, from which it gets the nickname La Ciudad Blanca ("The White City"). (more...)