Photo Gallery

The city of Arequipa, founded by the Spanish as early as 1540 at an altitude of 2,370 metres, now has a population of around two hundred thousand and lies in a narrow high-altitude basin where agriculture is only possible thanks to artificial irrigation. It owes its nickname, ‘the White City’, to the white tuff used as a building material. Arequipa is dominated by the 5,842-metre-high Misti, one of Peru’s few active volcanoes. Only during the summer rainy season is its smooth cone covered by a cap of snow. - Book: Picture 7 - Peru - 1976

The green agricultural landscape, with its traditional terraced fields (campiña) in the foreground, is dominated by the striking, snow-capped volcano El Misti. The stratovolcanic cone of El Misti rises majestically to over 5,820 metres in southern Peru and dominates the panorama of Arequipa. – Peru – 1976

The valley of the Río Vitor near Arequipa in southern Peru. The river feeds the agricultural oases and fields in the midst of this extremely arid landscape of deserts and canyons. On the horizon towers the imposing, snow-capped Chachani volcanic complex. At an altitude of approximately 6,057 metres, it is one of the defining mountains that frame the basin around Arequipa. This panorama illustrates the stark contrast between the barren Andean plateau, the snow-capped volcanic giants and the fertile river valleys on Peru’s Pacific coast. – 1976