Peru Profile
Peru is an Andean country that needs almost no presentation: fascinating history, natural beauty and friendly people, offering the best setting for Conventional Tourism, Special Interest, Adventure and Incentive Travel.
Peru is blessed with a rich, ancient past and a vibrant present, making it one of South America’s most popular travel destinations. Thousands of archaeological sites are located throughout the country, ranging from 10,000-year-old campsites of early hunters to the monumental stonewalls of sixteenth century Inca Cusco. Indeed, it is difficult to go anywhere in Peru without stumbling upon some ancient reminder of Peru’s past. By 2000 B.C. ancient Peruvians were building monumental temples and irrigation systems. They had even domesticated the llama and grew a variety of food crops, many of which, like the potato are very important in today’s world.
Although the Incas are by far Peru’s best-known culture, it is the civilizations preceding them that set the foundations for the rising of the Inca Empire. Peru’s museums are filled with amazing ceramics and textiles designed and created by the pre-Inca civilizations, such as Chavin, Paracas, Nazca, Moche and Wari. Ceramics are perhaps Peru’s best-known artistic legacy, found in museums throughout the world, and especially in Lima’s archaeological museums and collections.
By the fifteen-century after Christ, the Incas began to emerge from the Cusco valley to build their empire. At the point of maximum expansion around 1500, the empire reached six of today’s countries, connected by a 23,000-kilometer long network of roads. The short-lived Inca Empire came to an end with the arrival of the conquering Spaniards in 1532. Much of the ancient technology and social structures that made this great empire possible, have disappeared over the centuries, but others like a rich weaving tradition, have endured.
The legacy of colonial Peru is found in the churches, and vice royal mansions built by the Spaniards, who made Lima the seat of the Spanish viceroyalty until the country obtained independence from Spain in 1821.
Peru has then much to offer, the diversity of its landscape goes from the deserts of the coast, sprinkled by beautiful valleys and excellent beaches, passing by green mountains, with its incredible snow capped peaks and cradle of the Inca Empire to the wild jungle of the Amazon Basin. Our rainforest has a great variety of trees, plants, and birds among others attractions.
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