Arequipa historical timeline

Arequipa’s history is one of a wealthy, self-confident provincial city repeatedly knocked down and rebuilt.

Before the Spanish

The valleys were settled and terraced long before the Inca, by Collagua and Cabana peoples who built the canyon agriculture that still functions. The Inca incorporated the area in the fifteenth century, used the high volcanoes for capacocha sacrifices — which is how the frozen girl on Ampato came to be there — and left the local systems largely in place.

The Spanish city

Refounded in 1540 by Garci Manuel de Carbajal on the orders of Francisco Pizarro, and laid out on a grid that survives. Its position on the route between the Potosi silver mines and the coast made it rich, and the wealth went into churches, monasteries and mansions built in sillar with walls up to two metres thick — a direct response to earthquakes.

Earthquakes

Major destruction in 1582, 1600, 1604, 1687, 1868 and 2001. The 1600 Huaynaputina eruption buried the region in ash, ruined the wine industry and is thought to have contributed to a cold decade across the northern hemisphere.

Rebellion and republic

The city was a centre of criollo liberalism and revolted against Lima repeatedly through the nineteenth century, earning a reputation for independence it still trades on.

The frozen girl

In 1995 the eruption of nearby Sabancaya melted the ice cap on Ampato and exposed an Inca burial: a girl of about thirteen, sacrificed around 1450 and frozen since, with her textiles, hair and internal organs intact. She is now displayed in a refrigerated case in the city, and the discovery transformed what is known about the capacocha rite and about Inca weaving and diet.

Modern

Now Peru’s second city by economic weight, with mining, agriculture and a UNESCO inscription in 2000.