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Geography of Peru

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Through South America, Amazon rainforest and Sugarcane

Natural Regions

Despite the great diversity of Peruvian territory, the Spanish divided it into three main regions for political rather than geographical reasons: the Coast, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean; the Highlands, located in the Andean mountains; and the Amazon Jungle. This division, despite its evident limitations, lasted until 1941, when the third General Assembly of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History approved the creation of eight natural regions, proposed by the geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal, to establish a physiographic map more adjusted to the biogeographical reality of the territory. Thus conceived, the Peruvian map comprises the following regions:

  • La Chala or Coast: This region is found in the western lands, which are relatively flat and extend along the coast from sea level up to 500 meters in elevation. In this region, carob trees, palo verde, salt grass, mangroves, reeds, and wild canes grow along the rivers, and amancaes, wild tomatoes, mito, tara, and others grow on the hillsides. The coastal fauna includes sea lions, anchovies, and seabirds.
  • La Yunga: A region of fertile valleys and ravines where lúcumo, cherimoya, guava, avocado, citrus fruits, and sugar cane are cultivated, along with picturesque river canyons. Between 500 and 2300 meters on the western slope, it is known as Maritime Yunga, and between 1000 and 2300 meters on the eastern slope, it is called Fluvial Yunga. Fluvial Yunga has a warm climate with seasonal rains, while a desert climate predominates in Maritime Yunga. The flora includes molle, white agave, pitahaya, and chuná, and the fauna includes birds such as the chaucato and taurigaray.
  • Quechua: A region of temperate lands that extend across both Andean slopes between 2300 and 3500 meters in altitude. The landscape alternates between valleys and watersheds feeding into the same basin, with limited summer rains. The flora includes alder, lambran or rambash, gongapa, and arracacha, and maize, squash, passion fruit, papaya, wheat, and peach are cultivated. The fauna includes birds such as the gray thrush or chihuanco.
  • Suni or Jalca: Lands with a cold and dry climate, with abundant summer rains, located between 3500 and 4100 meters, characterized by glacial valleys and slightly undulating bottoms. The landscape is covered by grasses and shrubs like taya-taya, quishuar, and cantuta (sacred flower of the Incas). Despite the climate, quinoa, cañigua, broad beans, olluco, and other crops thrive. The fauna includes the black thrush and guinea pig.
  • La Puna: Covers the high plateaus and Andean cliffs between 4100 and 4800 meters, where a cold climate prevails. During the day, temperatures are positive, but they drop below 0 °C at night. The typical vegetation includes cacti and, in lakes and swampy areas, totoras. The most common crops are barley, potato, and maca. The characteristic fauna includes llama, alpaca, vicuña, guanaco, condor, huallata, flamingo, duck, and other aquatic birds.
  • La Janca: Corresponds to the high frozen peaks, encompassing the domains of the condor, where the climate is glacial and vegetation is very scarce, reduced almost to yareta or yarita.
  • La Rupa Rupa or High Jungle: Forested foothills located between 400 and 1000 meters on the eastern slope of the Andes, characterized by narrow, elongated valleys and river canyons or pongos. The warm, humid, and rainy climate favors a diverse tropical flora and fauna, including the tapir, peccary, and jaguar.
  • Omagua, The Amazon or Low Jungle: A jungle plain that extends between 80 and 400 meters on the eastern Andean slope, through which the rivers of the Amazon basin flow, forming meanders, swamps, and lagoons. The flora includes trees like chonta, cedar, palms, shapaja, and shebo, and plants like orchids. The fauna includes capybara, giant armadillo, otter, and red deer, birds like toucan, hoatzin, jabiru, and macaw, as well as fish like paiche and other aquatic animals like the manatee and pipa toad.

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