Potosí

Potosi, known in the colonial period as Villa Imperial de Potosi, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosi in Bolivia, sitting at a nominal elevation of 4,067 meters, among the highest cities in the world. The indigenous prospector Diego Huallpa is traditionally credited with discovering the silver deposits of the Cerro Rico, or rich mountain, in 1545, which led to the city's founding and rapid growth as the site of the Spanish colonial silver mint; at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries it was the second largest city in the world after London. Silver mined there was carried by llama and mule train to the Pacific coast and on to Spain via Panama, making Potosi the Spanish Empire's major silver supplier until Guanajuato in Mexico surpassed it in the 18th century. Its historic center and the Cerro Rico are together a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city remains an important mining center today, known for its well-preserved colonial architecture and rare cold highland climate.