Peru

What to know about Peru

The history of Peru spans 10 millennia, extending back through several stages of cultural development along the country’s desert coastline and in the Andes mountains. Peru’s coast was home to the Norte Chico civilization, the oldest civilization in the Americas and one of the six cradles of civilization in the world. When the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, Peru was the homeland of the highland Inca Empire, the largest and most advanced state in pre-Columbian America. After the conquest of the Incas, the Spanish Empire established a Viceroyalty with jurisdiction over most of its South American domains. Peru declared independence from Spain in 1821 but achieved independence only after the Battle of Ayacucho three years later.

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Although Peru’s seaboard is situated well within the tropical zone, it does not display an equatorial climate; average temperatures range from 21° C (70° F) in January to 10° C (50° F) in June at Lima, on the coast. At Cuzco, in the sierra, the range is only from 12° C (54° F ) to 9° C (48° F ), while at Iquitos, in the Amazon region, the temperature averages about 32° C (90° F ) all year round. The cold south–north Humboldt (or Peruvian) Current cools the ocean breezes, producing a sea mist with the inshore winds on the coastal plain. Only during the winter, from May to October, does this sea mist (garúa) condense into about 5 cm (2 in) of rain.

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The currency of Peru is known as the sol. The sol substituted the Peruvian inti in 1991. The word sol is derived from Latin (solidus) although the word also refers to the sun in the Spanish language. The currency is portioned into 100 parts called centimos (cents). After the currency was introduced in 1991, the currency was commonly known as Nuevo until the Peruvian congress pioneered the renaming of the currency just to sol.

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