Peru occupies the western edge of South America, stretching from a narrow desert coastline on the Pacific Ocean across the towering spine of the Andes and into the vast lowlands of the Amazon Basin. Understanding Peru geography means understanding how altitude, not simply latitude, governs climate, vegetation, settlement, and economic life across this remarkably varied country. Few nations compress such environmental extremes into a single territory: rainless coastal deserts sit only a few hundred kilometers from glaciated peaks, which in turn descend into some of the most biologically rich rainforest on Earth.
This diversity has shaped Peru’s history and its present. Lima, the capital, anchors a coastal metropolitan region that holds a disproportionate share of the national population, while the Andean highlands preserve deep agricultural and cultural traditions tracing back to the Inca Empire and earlier civilizations. To the east, the Peruvian Amazon extends toward Brazil and Colombia, supporting Indigenous communities, extraordinary biodiversity, and a river-based way of life largely disconnected from the road network that serves the coast and highlands.
This article explores how Peru’s physical geography, natural resources, population patterns, cultural history, and economic activities interact, using specific regions and places to illustrate broader geographic processes at work across the country.
Geographic Location, Borders, and Territorial Extent
Peru sits in western South America, crossed by the Equator in its far north and extending southward along the Pacific coast to the Atacama Desert margin shared with Chile. The country borders Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the southeast, and Chile to the south. This combination of borders places Peru at a crossroads between the Amazon Basin, the Andean highlands, and the Pacific maritime world.
Peru’s land area is commonly cited at approximately 1.28 million square kilometers, making it one of the larger countries in South America, and its Pacific coastline extends roughly 2,400 kilometers from the Ecuadorian border in the north to the Chilean border in the south. Beyond its land territory, Peru claims a maritime domain extending into the Pacific Ocean, a zone of particular importance for its fisheries, which should be understood as distinct from its continental land area.
The country’s elongated north–south shape, combined with its west–east transition from coast to mountains to rainforest, produces striking environmental gradients within short horizontal distances. A traveler moving inland from the Pacific coast can pass from arid desert to high alpine terrain to humid tropical forest within a few hundred kilometers, a compression of ecological zones rarely matched elsewhere in the world.
Major Natural Regions and Geographic Divisions
Peruvian geographers traditionally divide the country into three natural regions, a framework still widely used in education and regional planning. The Costa, or coast, is a narrow strip of desert and irrigated river valleys running the length of the Pacific shoreline. Despite its aridity, the Costa holds the majority of Peru’s urban population and economic activity, including Lima.
The Sierra encompasses the Andes Mountains, including high plateaus, intermontane valleys, and settlements that in some cases sit above 3,000 meters. Cities such as Cusco, Puno, and Huancayo exemplify Sierra settlement patterns shaped by elevation, slope, and access to arable land.
The Selva refers to Peru’s eastern territory, covering both the steep, forested eastern slopes of the Andes and the flat Amazonian lowlands beyond them. This region supplies most of Peru’s land area despite holding a comparatively small share of its population.
While useful, this three-region model simplifies a more complex reality. The transition from highland Sierra to lowland Amazon passes through the ceja de selva, or cloud forest zone, an ecologically distinct belt of steep, moisture-laden terrain that differs sharply from both the high Andes above it and the flat Amazonian lowlands below. Recognizing this transitional zone helps explain patterns of biodiversity and land use that a strict three-region division can obscure.
Geological Structure, Tectonics, and Landforms
Peru’s geography is fundamentally shaped by plate tectonics. Along the country’s western margin, the oceanic Nazca Plate subducts beneath the continental South American Plate, a process that has driven the uplift of the Andes over millions of years and continues to generate earthquakes and volcanic activity today. This subduction zone makes Peru one of the more seismically active countries in South America, with southern Peru also hosting active and dormant volcanoes.
The Andes in Peru are commonly described in terms of parallel mountain chains, including the Cordillera Occidental to the west and the Cordillera Oriental to the east, which enclose high plateaus and valleys. In the south, near the border with Bolivia, these ranges give way to the Altiplano, a high plateau environment that also extends into neighboring Bolivia and hosts Lake Titicaca.
Peru’s highest peak, Huascarán, rises in the Cordillera Blanca in the north-central Andes, with an elevation commonly cited at approximately 6,768 meters, though published figures vary slightly depending on survey methods and measurement dates. Along the coast, tectonic uplift and millions of years of erosion have produced a narrow plain bordered by desert terraces and river valleys descending from the mountains. These same geological processes concentrate valuable mineral deposits throughout the Andes, while also contributing to landslides, debris flows, and erosion hazards in steep terrain.
Major Mountains, Plateaus, and Valleys
The Andes dominate Peru’s physical geography and profoundly shape transportation, agriculture, and settlement patterns. Mountain passes determine where roads can cross between coast, highlands, and jungle, while valley floors and terraced slopes provide some of the only cultivable land in otherwise rugged terrain.
The Cordillera Blanca, home to Huascarán, and the neighboring Cordillera Huayhuash are known for extensive glaciation and dramatic peaks that attract mountaineers and researchers studying climate change. Further south, the Altiplano surrounding Lake Titicaca supports a distinct highland agricultural and pastoral tradition adapted to cold temperatures and high elevation. The Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, near Cusco, illustrates how a lower-elevation valley corridor within the high Andes can support intensive agriculture and dense settlement, a pattern that made the valley central to Inca-era land use.
Glacial retreat across the Peruvian Andes has become an increasingly important geographic concern. Many Andean communities depend on glacial meltwater for drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower, particularly during the dry season when rainfall is limited. As glaciers shrink, downstream communities face growing uncertainty over water supplies, alongside increased risks from glacial lake outburst floods and other mountain hazards.
Rivers, Lakes, and Drainage Systems
Peru’s river systems fall into three broad drainage patterns. Rivers originating in the western Andes flow relatively short distances to the Pacific Ocean, rivers originating on the eastern slopes flow into the vast Amazon drainage system, and a separate inland basin drains into Lake Titicaca on the Peru–Bolivia border.
The Amazon’s headwaters lie in the Peruvian Andes, though hydrologists have long debated exactly which tributary should be considered the river’s ultimate source, depending on whether length, flow volume, or other criteria are used. Major Peruvian rivers feeding the Amazon system include the Ucayali, the Marañón, the Huallaga, and the Madre de Dios, each draining different sections of the eastern Andes and Amazonian lowlands before converging toward Brazil.
Lake Titicaca, shared between Peru and Bolivia, sits at high altitude on the Altiplano and ranks among the world’s highest large navigable lakes. It supports fishing communities, traditional reed-boat transportation, and distinctive ecosystems adapted to cold, oxygen-thin conditions. On the coast, rivers descending from the Andes supply irrigation water to desert valleys, but their seasonal flow varies considerably, creating a persistent contrast between water-scarce coastal agriculture and the comparatively water-abundant Amazonian interior. Flooding, sediment transport, and water allocation remain ongoing management challenges across these differing drainage environments.
Climate and Weather Patterns
Latitude alone cannot explain Peru’s climate. Elevation, the presence of the Andes, the cold offshore Peru–Humboldt Current, and the moisture-laden air masses moving in from the Amazon Basin together produce dramatically different conditions across short distances. The Humboldt Current cools coastal air and suppresses rainfall, helping explain why much of Peru’s Pacific coast, including Lima, remains arid or semi-arid despite its tropical latitude.
In the Sierra, climate varies with elevation, producing temperate conditions in mid-altitude valleys and increasingly cold, often frost-prone conditions at higher elevations. Rainfall in the highlands is generally concentrated in a wet season, with drier conditions during the remainder of the year. In the Selva, warm and humid conditions prevail throughout much of the year, supported by consistent moisture from the Amazon Basin.
The El Niño–Southern Oscillation exerts a powerful influence on Peruvian weather, periodically warming coastal waters and disrupting the usual aridity of the coast with intense rainfall and flooding, while also affecting marine productivity and fisheries. These El Niño-driven disruptions are distinct from Peru’s ordinary seasonal weather patterns and can cause significant damage to coastal infrastructure and agriculture when they occur. Climate change compounds these pressures, accelerating glacier retreat in the Andes and altering rainfall patterns that highland and Amazonian communities depend on.
Soils, Vegetation, and Ecosystems
Peru’s ecosystems range from coastal deserts and seasonally dry forests to high-altitude grasslands, cloud forests, and lowland tropical rainforest. Soil quality, elevation, temperature, and rainfall interact to determine which vegetation types and land uses are viable in a given area.
In the high Andes, the puna—a cold, open grassland ecosystem—supports grazing by native camelids and traditional pastoral economies, particularly in southern Peru. This should not be confused with the páramo, a wetter high-altitude grassland ecosystem more characteristic of Peru’s far north and neighboring Ecuador; the two occupy distinct ecological niches despite superficial similarities.
Along the northern coast, mangrove forests and coastal wetlands support fisheries and migratory bird populations, while slightly further inland, dry forests persist in areas with limited but seasonal rainfall. On Andean slopes, cloud forests capture moisture from rising air and support dense, biologically rich vegetation, including stands of native Polylepis woodland found at unusually high elevations for tree growth. Deeper in the Amazon, continuous tropical rainforest stores large amounts of carbon, regulates regional water cycles, and stabilizes soils that would otherwise be vulnerable to erosion once cleared.
Biodiversity and Wildlife
Peru is widely recognized as one of the world’s megadiverse countries, a status rooted directly in its geography. The combination of coastal, Andean, and Amazonian environments, layered across a wide range of elevations and climates, creates habitat diversity that supports an exceptional range of species.
The Andean condor soars over high mountain terrain, while the vicuña, a wild relative of domesticated llamas and alpacas, grazes on puna grasslands at high elevation. The spectacled bear, South America’s only native bear species, inhabits Andean cloud forests, and the Andean cock-of-the-rock, Peru’s national bird, is closely associated with these same humid montane habitats. In the Amazonian lowlands, jaguars patrol forest and riverine habitats, while pink river dolphins inhabit the Amazon’s tributary waterways.
Protected areas such as Manu National Park, spanning Andean and Amazonian ecosystems, and Huascarán National Park, centered on the glaciated peaks of the Cordillera Blanca, preserve critical habitat and support ongoing scientific research. Despite these protections, Peru’s biodiversity faces mounting threats from deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, habitat fragmentation linked to mining and agricultural expansion, pollution from informal mining operations, and the broader pressures of climate change on sensitive ecosystems.
Population Distribution and Settlement Geography
According to the first results of Peru’s 2025 National Census, released by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) in 2026, the country’s reported total population stands at 34,157,732. This figure represents the total reported in the census’s initial results and should be distinguished from the number of people directly enumerated during fieldwork, as well as from more detailed demographic breakdowns that are typically published in later stages of census processing. For comparison, Peru’s 2017 census recorded a smaller population, though any comparison between census years should clearly label the reference year and the specific statistical category being compared, since census totals, enumerated populations, and population estimates are not interchangeable measures.
Peru’s population is distributed highly unevenly across its three natural regions. The Costa holds the largest share of the national population, with metropolitan Lima standing as by far the country’s largest urban center and its political, economic, and cultural hub. The Sierra, while historically significant and still home to major cities such as Arequipa and Cusco, has a more dispersed rural population in many areas, and the Selva remains the least densely populated region despite its large territorial extent.
This uneven distribution reflects a long history of internal migration toward Lima and other coastal cities, driven by economic opportunity, access to services, and, during past decades, displacement linked to political conflict in the highlands. Regional inequalities in access to education, healthcare, employment, and transport infrastructure remain closely tied to this geographic pattern, with more remote highland and Amazonian communities often facing greater barriers to these services than coastal urban populations.
Administrative and Political Geography
Peru is a sovereign, constitutional republic organized administratively into departments, along with the Constitutional Province of Callao, which holds a status distinct from the surrounding departments. These departments are further subdivided into provinces and districts, forming the basic units of local government across the country.
Lima holds particular administrative significance, both as the seat of national government and as the center of a metropolitan area that extends beyond the boundaries of Lima Province itself. It is important to distinguish Lima Province, a specific administrative unit, from the broader Lima metropolitan area, which functions as a single urban region but spans multiple administrative boundaries.
Peru’s administrative divisions should not be confused with its natural geographic regions. A single department, for instance, may contain portions of Costa, Sierra, or Selva terrain, meaning administrative boundaries often cut across, rather than align with, the country’s physical geography. This mismatch has practical consequences for governance: the rugged terrain of the Andes, the long distances separating Amazonian communities from regional capitals, and the concentration of population and infrastructure along the coast all complicate the delivery of public services and the coordination of regional development across Peru’s administrative units.
Historical and Cultural Geography
Peru’s geography has shaped its cultural history as profoundly as its physical landscape. In the centuries before Spanish colonization, Andean societies developed sophisticated methods of adapting to extreme elevation, variable rainfall, and rugged terrain. The Inca civilization, which rose to dominance in the fifteenth century, built an extensive road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, connecting settlements across the Andes from present-day Colombia to Chile and Argentina, allowing administration, trade, and communication across a vast and difficult terrain. Cusco served as the Inca capital, while the Sacred Valley nearby supported intensive agriculture that helped sustain the empire, and the mountaintop site of Machu Picchu remains one of the most recognizable symbols of Inca engineering and geographic adaptation.
Peru’s cultural geography extends well before the Inca period. The coastal site of Caral-Supe represents one of the oldest known urban centers in the Americas, while the Chavín culture influenced Andean religious and artistic traditions centuries before Inca rule. On the southern coast, the Nazca Lines, a series of large-scale geoglyphs etched into the desert floor, reflect the deep relationship between pre-Inca societies and the arid coastal landscape they inhabited.
Spanish colonization reshaped settlement patterns, concentrating political and economic power in coastal cities such as Lima while disrupting existing Andean networks. Today, Peru remains linguistically and culturally diverse: Spanish serves as the dominant language nationally, while Quechua and Aymara hold recognized status in regions where they are widely spoken, and numerous Indigenous languages persist among Amazonian communities. Peru’s mountain barriers, valleys, and ecological zones have historically reinforced regional distinctiveness, producing a cultural landscape where Andean highland traditions, coastal urban culture, and diverse Amazonian Indigenous societies all remain active, evolving parts of national life rather than relics of the past.
Agriculture, Fisheries, and Land Use
Peru’s contrasting environmental regions support markedly different agricultural systems. On the coast, irrigated valleys fed by Andean rivers sustain export-oriented agriculture, including crops such as asparagus, grapes, and other horticultural products that have grown in importance as Peru’s agricultural exports have diversified. Coastal agriculture depends heavily on consistent irrigation, making it particularly vulnerable to drought and to the seasonal variability of river flows originating in the mountains.
Highland agriculture reflects centuries of adaptation to elevation and cold. Potatoes, native to the Andes, remain a staple crop, alongside maize and quinoa, both well suited to high-altitude growing conditions. Livestock raising, including alpacas, llamas, and sheep, supports both subsistence and commercial activity across puna grasslands, providing wool, meat, and transport in areas poorly suited to conventional farming.
In the Amazonian lowlands, agriculture and forest-based livelihoods coexist with the ecological limits of tropical soils, which are often less fertile than they appear once forest cover is removed. Expanding agricultural land into the Amazon carries significant environmental consequences, including deforestation and soil degradation. Along the coast, Peru’s fisheries benefit enormously from the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Humboldt Current, which supports one of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems; El Niño events, however, can sharply reduce fish catches by disrupting the cold-water upwelling fisheries depend on. Across all three regions, agricultural practices such as terracing in the Andes and irrigation management on the coast reflect long-standing local knowledge adapted to each environment’s specific constraints.
Mineral Resources, Energy, and Economic Geography
Peru’s geology, shaped by the same tectonic processes that built the Andes, has endowed the country with significant mineral wealth. Copper, gold, silver, zinc, and lead are among the resources commonly associated with Peruvian mining, with extraction concentrated in specific Andean and coastal mining districts rather than distributed evenly across the country. Mining activity contributes substantially to Peru’s exports and public revenue, and supports employment both directly and through related industries, though the precise scale of this contribution varies from year to year and should be verified against current economic data rather than treated as fixed.
Energy production in Peru includes a significant hydropower component, drawing on the country’s mountainous terrain and river systems, alongside natural gas resources that have become increasingly important to the national energy mix. Renewable energy sources, including solar and wind potential along the coast and in southern highland areas, represent a growing area of development.
Economic activity in Peru remains geographically concentrated, with Lima serving as the dominant center for industry, services, and finance. Regional cities such as Arequipa, Trujillo, Cusco, and Piura function as important secondary economic hubs, each shaped by its surrounding geography, whether coastal agriculture and industry, Andean mining and tourism, or northern coastal trade. Mining activity, while economically significant, carries geographic consequences, including water pollution from both formal and informal operations, competition over land and water resources, and ongoing tensions between national economic priorities and the interests of local and Indigenous communities near extraction sites.
Transportation Networks and Geographic Connectivity
Peru’s rugged terrain poses persistent challenges for transportation infrastructure. The Pan-American Highway runs along the coast, linking major coastal cities and serving as the backbone of Peru’s road network, while interregional roads climb through Andean passes to connect highland cities with coastal and Amazonian destinations. These mountain routes are often vulnerable to landslides, flooding, and seasonal closures, particularly during the rainy season.
Railways, though more limited than in some other South American countries, remain significant in specific corridors, including routes connecting Cusco with the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. In the Amazonian lowlands, where road infrastructure is sparse, river transport serves as a primary means of moving people and goods between communities, reflecting the region’s dependence on its extensive waterway network rather than a conventional road grid.
The Port of Callao, adjacent to Lima, functions as Peru’s principal maritime gateway, handling a large share of the country’s international trade. Lima’s role as the central hub for roads, rail connections, air travel, and port access reinforces the coastal concentration of economic activity described elsewhere in this article. Connecting coastal cities, highland mining districts, agricultural valleys, and remote Amazonian communities remains a persistent logistical challenge, with difficult terrain, periodic natural hazards, and infrastructure gaps in remote areas all contributing to higher transport costs and reduced accessibility outside the main coastal corridor.
Tourism and Geographic Heritage
Peru’s combination of dramatic landscapes and deep cultural heritage makes it one of South America’s most visited countries. Machu Picchu, perched on a ridge above the Urubamba River in the Sacred Valley, draws visitors for both its archaeological significance and its striking mountain setting. Cusco, the former Inca capital, serves as the primary gateway to this region, while the Nazca Lines on the southern coastal desert attract visitors interested in pre-Inca geoglyphs best viewed from the air.
Lake Titicaca offers a different kind of geographic appeal, centered on its high-altitude setting and the traditional lifestyles of communities living along its shores. In southern Peru, Colca Canyon ranks among the world’s deeper canyons and supports both tourism and traditional agricultural terracing along its slopes. Huascarán National Park attracts trekkers and mountaineers drawn to its glaciated peaks, while the Peruvian Amazon offers an entirely different tourism experience centered on biodiversity and river-based travel.
Each of these destinations depends on specific geographic conditions: altitude affects visitor comfort and accessibility, seasonal rainfall influences trail conditions and visibility, and fragile ecosystems require careful management to withstand visitor numbers. Balancing tourism revenue with the preservation of archaeological sites, protection of natural ecosystems, sustainable water use, and respect for the rights and livelihoods of local communities remains an ongoing challenge across Peru’s major tourist destinations.
Natural Hazards and Environmental Challenges
Peru’s position along an active tectonic boundary exposes it to significant natural hazards. Earthquakes occur regularly along the coast and in the Andes, and the subduction zone offshore also carries tsunami risk for coastal communities. In southern Peru, active and potentially active volcanoes present additional hazards, including ashfall and, in extreme cases, pyroclastic flows. Steep Andean slopes are prone to landslides and debris flows, particularly during periods of intense rainfall, while coastal and river flooding can occur both during ordinary rainy seasons and, more severely, during El Niño events. Highland communities also contend with periodic drought and cold spells that bring damaging frosts to agricultural areas.
Beyond these natural hazards, Peru faces environmental challenges driven or intensified by human activity. Deforestation in the Amazon reduces carbon storage and habitat availability, while illegal mining, particularly in parts of the southern Amazon, contributes to mercury pollution and biodiversity loss. Soil erosion affects both deforested Amazonian land and overgrazed highland slopes, and urban air pollution and waste management difficulties are concentrated in rapidly growing cities, particularly metropolitan Lima. Glacier retreat across the Andes compounds these pressures, threatening the seasonal water supplies that downstream agriculture, hydropower generation, and highland communities depend on. Distinguishing these human-driven environmental pressures from purely natural hazards helps clarify where prevention and monitoring efforts, such as early warning systems and conservation programs, can meaningfully reduce risk.
Conservation and Sustainable Geographic Development
Peru maintains a system of protected areas spanning national parks, reserves, and other conservation categories designed to safeguard its ecosystems, water sources, wildlife, and cultural landscapes. Manu National Park protects a continuum of ecosystems from high Andean terrain down into Amazonian lowlands, supporting extraordinary biodiversity within a single protected area. Huascarán National Park preserves the glaciated peaks and high-altitude ecosystems of the Cordillera Blanca, offering both conservation value and recreational access for mountaineering and trekking.
Peru’s UNESCO World Heritage properties further reflect the country’s natural and cultural significance. According to UNESCO’s official records, Peru holds thirteen inscribed World Heritage properties, comprising nine cultural sites, including the Historic Centre of Lima, the City of Cuzco, Chan Chan Archaeological Zone, and the Sacred City of Caral-Supe, two natural sites, Huascarán National Park and Manú National Park, and two mixed cultural-natural properties, the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu and Río Abiseo National Park.
Enforcing conservation protections across Peru’s remote forests and mountainous terrain remains logistically difficult, particularly where extractive industries operate near protected boundaries. Balancing mining, agriculture, and infrastructure development with biodiversity protection requires ongoing coordination between national authorities, regional governments, and local and Indigenous communities, whose participation in watershed management, land-use planning, and climate adaptation is increasingly recognized as essential to sustainable outcomes across Peru’s varied landscapes.
Peru’s Regional and Global Geographic Importance
Peru’s position as a Pacific-facing country with deep connections to both the Andes and the Amazon Basin gives it outsized regional and global geographic significance. Its mineral exports feed global supply chains, while its Pacific fisheries, supported by the Humboldt Current, contribute to regional food systems and trade. Its share of the Amazon rainforest links Peru’s environmental management decisions directly to global concerns around biodiversity conservation and climate regulation, given the Amazon’s role in carbon storage and regional weather patterns.
Because Peru’s rivers, forests, and mountain ecosystems extend across borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile, many of its environmental challenges cannot be addressed in isolation. River-basin management in the Amazon, biodiversity conservation across shared Andean and lowland ecosystems, and climate adaptation in glaciated mountain regions all require cooperation with neighboring countries and engagement with international frameworks. In this sense, Peru’s geography situates it not only as a diverse and distinctive country in its own right, but as a critical link within the broader environmental and economic systems of South America and the wider world.
Key Geographic Facts
|
Fact |
Information |
|---|---|
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Official name |
Republic of Peru |
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Capital |
Lima |
|
Continent |
South America |
|
Geographic location |
Western South America, crossed by the Equator in the north |
|
Total area |
Approximately 1.28 million square kilometers |
|
Land boundaries |
Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile |
|
Coastline |
Approximately 2,400 kilometers along the Pacific Ocean |
|
Population |
34,157,732 (reported total, first results of the 2025 National Census, INEI) |
|
Official languages |
Spanish nationally; Quechua and Aymara also officially recognized in areas where predominant |
|
Currency |
Peruvian sol |
|
Major natural regions |
Costa, Sierra, and Selva |
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Highest point |
Huascarán, approximately 6,768 meters (figures vary slightly by source) |
|
Major lake |
Lake Titicaca (shared with Bolivia) |
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Major river systems |
Pacific-draining coastal rivers and the Amazon drainage system (Ucayali, Marañón, Huallaga, Madre de Dios) |
|
Major mountain range |
The Andes |
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Climate |
Arid to semi-arid coast, varied highland climates by elevation, and warm, humid Amazonian lowlands |
|
Major resources |
Copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead, and natural gas |
|
UNESCO World Heritage properties |
13 total: 9 cultural, 2 natural, 2 mixed (per UNESCO World Heritage Centre) |
|
Time zone |
Peru Time (UTC−5), observed year-round |