Peru Summary

photo by gusto

The land of gold and of the sun-worshipping Incas, Peru was sixteenth-century Europe’s major source of treasure, and once the home of the largest empire in the world. Since then the riches of the Incas have fuelled the European imagination, although in many ways the country’s real appeal lies in the sheer beauty of its various landscapes, the abundance of its wildlife, and the strong and colourful character of the people – newly recovered after a period of political upheaval, from the 1980s until the early 1990s, that was as bloody and unpredictable as any during the country’s history.