La Ciudad Blanca — volcanic stone, baroque cloisters, and Peru's richest regional cuisine
Arequipa sits at 2,335 metres in southern Peru, built almost entirely from sillar — a white volcanic stone quarried from the three volcanoes that ring the city — earning it the nickname La Ciudad Blanca (the White City). The Santa Catalina Monastery is one of the great surprises of South American travel: a 400-year-old walled city within the city, with cobblestone streets, plazas, and painted cloisters that housed 200 nuns in near-total isolation until 1970. Arequipa's food scene rivals Lima in the eyes of many Peruvians: rocoto relleno (stuffed spicy pepper), adobo arequipeño (overnight pork…
The Arequipa valley was inhabited by the Collagua and Cabana peoples before the Inca incorporated the region into Tawantinsuyu around 1450, recognising its fertile agricultural land fed by Andean melt-water. The Spanish founded the colonial city on 15 August 1540 and built almost entirely from local sillar volcanic ashlar, giving it a distinctive white appearance that survives repeated earthquakes. The historic centre was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, and the city's tradition of spicy regional cooking — the picantería culture, where women cook over wood fires in open courtyar…