Ten Andean and Pampas Cities from Cuenca to La Plata

Cuenca, founded in 1557, is the capital of Ecuador's Azuay province and sits at about 2,560 meters. Its well-preserved Spanish colonial center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the 2022 census counted 596,101 people, third in the country behind Guayaquil and Quito.

Piura was established in 1532 and is one of the oldest Spanish-founded cities in South America. It lies on the Piura River north of the Sechura Desert and is a commercial and agricultural center for Peru's northern coast, known for cotton, mango and lime.

Cusco shows two eras in one place. The Inca ruler Manco Capac is said to have founded it as capital of the Inca Empire, and after the Spanish reestablished it in 1534 they built colonial Cusco directly over Inca monuments. At about 3,400 meters it is the largest city in the Peruvian Andes, with 428,450 people in 2017.

Potosí began with the 1545 discovery of silver in the Cerro Rico, and at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries it was the second largest city in the world after London. At a nominal 4,067 meters it is among the highest cities anywhere, and its historic center and the Cerro Rico are together a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cochabamba lies in an Andean valley and takes its name from the Quechua words for lake and open plain. Called the City of Eternal Spring for its mild climate, it is Bolivia's fourth largest city, with 661,484 people in the 2024 census, and sits between the higher capital La Paz and the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Santa Cruz de la Sierra is the largest city in Bolivia, in the eastern tropical lowlands on the Pirai River. Ñuflo de Chavez founded it in 1561 about 200 kilometers east of its present site, and it grew rapidly only after mid-20th-century agrarian and land reforms. It now produces nearly 35 percent of Bolivia's gross domestic product.

Salta, the capital and largest city of its province in northwest Argentina, had 627,704 people at the 2022 census, the seventh most populous city in the country. It is the cultural and economic center of the Valle de Lerma Metropolitan Area, which holds more than half of the province's population, and it stands at about 1,152 meters.

Mendoza, founded in 1561 in the Andean foothills, is the center of Argentina's largest wine-producing region and is known for Malbec vineyards and for irrigation canals lined with sycamore trees. The city proper had 115,041 people in 2010, while Greater Mendoza held 1,055,679 and ranked fourth among Argentine metropolitan areas.

Rosario stands on the west bank of the Paraná River about 300 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires, and it is the country's third most populous city. It is a major river port for grain exports from the surrounding Pampas, the birthplace of Che Guevara, and the place where the national flag was first raised in 1812.

La Plata was founded in 1882 as a planned capital for Buenos Aires province, laid out on a strict grid with diagonal avenues. The 2022 census counted 772,618 people in its partido and 938,287 in Greater La Plata, and it hosts a major national university and a large cathedral.