The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a local ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama City, in the early 16th century. Spanish conquistadors, who arrived in 1522, believed this was the

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Prehistory and Pre-Columbian Peru
The earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 12,500 BCE in the Huaca Prieta settlement. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using techniques such as

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Peru is a unitary presidential republic with a multi-party system. The country has maintained a liberal democratic system under its 1993 Constitution, which replaced a

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The economy of Peru is the 48th largest in the world (ranked by Purchasing power parity), and the income level is classified as upper middle by the World Bank. Peru is, as of 2011 , one of the world's fastest-growing economies owing to an economic boom experienced during

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Largest cities and towns
Ethnic groups
Peru is a multiethnic nation formed by successive waves of different peoples over five centuries. Amerindians inhabited Peruvian territory for several millennia before the

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Peruvian culture is primarily rooted in Amerindian and European traditions, though it has also been influenced by various Asian and African ethnic groups. Peruvian artistic traditions date back to the elaborate pottery, textiles, jewelry, and sculpture of

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Peru is located on the central western coast of South America facing the Pacific Ocean. It lies wholly in the Southern Hemisphere, its northernmost extreme reaching to 1.8 minutes of

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