Moquegua

Moquegua is the capital of Peru's Department of Moquegua, Mariscal Nieto Province, and Moquegua District, in southern Peru at an elevation of about 1,410 meters, roughly 1,144 kilometers south of Lima. The valley holds both Wari and Tiwanaku ruins; the Wari built monuments and terraced hillside fields for farming there before the Inca conquest. Spanish colonists founded the city as Villa de Santa Catalina de Guadalcázar del Valle de Moquegua, traditionally dated to November 25, 1541, by Pedro Cansino and his wife Josefina de Bilbao, though no definitive founding record survives. The 2017 census recorded a population of 69,882.