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Lima
Peru's capital, the City of Kings on the Pacific desert coast
Wrapped for much of the year in a soft grey sea mist the locals call the garua, Lima sprawls across a coastal desert between the Pacific and the foothills of the Andes. Founded by conquistadors as the City of Kings, the Peruvian capital fuses a UNESCO-listed colonial core of balconied mansions and gilded churches with a sprawling modern metropolis of more than eleven million. It is the gastronomic capital of South America, where Andean, Spanish, African, Japanese, and Chinese traditions have fused into one of the planet's most celebrated cuisines.
The city occupies a desert plain crossed by three rivers descending from the Andes, the largest being the Rimac, with the historic centre sitting around 150 metres above sea level. Despite lying in the tropics, Lima almost never sees rain, for the cold Humboldt Current offshore chills the air and traps a persistent coastal fog that keeps summers mild and winters damp and overcast. Cliffs drop to the Pacific along the upscale Miraflores and Barranco districts, while the metropolis climbs into surrounding hills crowded with self-built neighbourhoods.
Francisco Pizarro founded Lima in 1535 as the capital of Spain's South American empire, and for nearly three centuries it ruled a viceroyalty stretching across the continent. That imperial wealth built its cathedral, its university, and the catacombs beneath its monasteries. After independence Lima remained Peru's overwhelming centre of population, government, and commerce. Today it is a study in contrasts, its colonial heart and elegant seaside districts ringed by vast informal settlements, all bound together by a fervent, world-renowned food culture.