Peru » Maps and Geography

Peru's territory has an area of 1,285,216 km². It is bordered by Ecuador and Colombia on the north, Brazil and Bolivia to the east, and finally Chile and Bolivia to the south. To the west lies the Pacific Ocean. Its population has more than 27 million inhabitants that speak Spanish, with others bilingual in Quechua or Aymara and other native languages.

Eastern Peru consists mostly of the moist tropical jungles of the Amazon Rain Forest, the largest on Earth. In the southeast along the border with Bolivia lies Lake Titicaca the highest navigable lake in the world. The Altiplano plateau is a dry basin located along the slopes of the Andes in south-eastern Peru. Along the border with Chile, the Atacama Desert is the driest place on the planet.

The Peruvian Sea is home to a large amount and variety of fish life. The Sechura Desert is located in north-western Peru along the Pacific coastline. The main rivers of Peru include the Ucayali, Amazon (which is formed by the confluence of the Marañón and the Ucayali), Putumayo, Pastaza, Napo, Jurua, and the Purus. Peru is divided in 24 departments and one constitutional province.