Peru is a country in South America that's home to a section of Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu, an ancient Incan city high in the Andes mountains. The region around Machu Picchu, including the Sacred Valley, Inca Trail and colonial city of Cusco, is rich in archaeological sites. On Peru’s arid Pacific coast is Lima, the capital, with a preserved colonial center and important collections of pre-Columbian art.

Landscape Facts 

Peru, a country made up of deserts, mountains and huge forests, has been compared to a continent with many countries, many climates and many different ethnic groups. Although it is situated in a tropical area, the peaks of different heights in the Andes mountain range that either block or change the course of the winds, the currents that flow through its ocean - the cold Humboldt current from the south and the warm Niño current from the equator - are some of the reasons why the climate is not consistent with the latitude, creating a wide variety of landscapes, each with its own wildlife and agricultural and forestry resources.

Due to its extraordinary biodiversity, more than 400 species of mammals, 1,700 types of birds (26% of all the birds on this planet), 2,000 species of salt water and fresh water fish and 35,000 species of plants have been catalogued so far. The Tambopata-Candamo Reserve holds the world record as far as the diversity of birds is concerned, while Yanamono in Loreto, has the greatest diversity of trees in the world: 300 species per hectare duly identified.

The immense majority of these species live in the 46 protected natural areas, which cover 10% of the national territory. Some of the most important ones are the Paracas Natural Reserve, the Manu Natural Reserve, the Tambopata-Candamo Reserve, and the Pacaya Samiria Reserve (near Iquitos), which are considered to be the richest in the world, given their extraordinary wealth of flora and fauna.