Peru
Peru (officially Republic of Peru) is a country in South America, with its capital at Lima, and is home to roughly 34.2M people.
Its official languages are Aymara, Quechua, Spanish; the currency in circulation is Peruvian sol (S/.); people from here are called Peruvian.
> INTEL_
> NOTABLE_
- »Machu Picchu was built in the 15th century and abandoned about a hundred years later.
- »Peru holds part of the Amazon, the Andes and one of the world's driest coastal deserts.
- »The potato was domesticated here; thousands of varieties are still grown.
> BORDERS_
Peru touches five neighbours: Bolivia to the southeast, Brazil to the east, Chile to the south, Colombia to the north and Ecuador to the northwest. Directions run from one centre to the other.
> THE CAPITAL_
Lima was founded by Pizarro in 1535 as the City of Kings and ruled Spanish South America for centuries. It sits in a coastal desert and is one of the driest capitals in the world.
> SCALE_
1,296,213 km² (500,470 sq mi), 19th largest of 198 countries and territories on file, almost exactly the size of Chad.
Population 34,217,848, 48th of 198 on file. That averages 26 per km² (68 per sq mi).
> THE FLAG_
Red and white, said to have been chosen by San Martín after seeing flamingos take flight. The civil flag is plain; the state flag adds the coat of arms with a vicuña, a cinchona tree and a cornucopia.