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Mar 16, 2010 09:00 PM Arequipa, The white city
Arequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 904,931 it is thesecond most populous city of the country. Arequipa lies in the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 2,380 meters (7,800 feet) above sea level; the snow-capped volcano El Misti overlooks the city.
Arequipa 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"). Reportedly, it first acquired this nickname in the colonial era, because most of its inhabitants were Creole of peninsular (Spanish) descent. The historic centre of Arequipa was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, in recognition of its architecture and historic integrity.
Arequipa is located in the southwestern part of the country and is the second biggest city of Peru, with a population of almost one million. It is also the capital of the department of Arequipa, 663.8 miles (1,068km) from Lima. Arequipa sits at an altitude of 2,325 metres above sea level in a mountainous desert in the western Andes, at the foot of El Mistivolcano.
Metropolitan Arequipa has a metropolitan population of 821.692 inhabitants, equivalent to 71.31% of the population of the department of Arequipa, at 95.07% of the population of the province of Arequipa and 3.00% of total population of Peru, becoming the largest city in southern Peru and the second most populous.
http://www.arequipaperu.org/
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