Thirteen Peruvian Regional Capitals by Altitude from Tumbes to Cerro de Pasco

Tumbes is the lowest stop, at about 6 meters on the banks of the Tumbes River in Peru's far northwest near the Ecuador border. Francisco Pizarro visited it in 1528 during his first contact with the Inca Empire, long before the conquest campaign that began at Cajamarca.

Iquitos stands at about 104 meters where the Amazon, Nanay and Itaya rivers meet, and it is considered the largest city in the world with no road access from the mainland, reachable only by river and air. It prospered dramatically during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century rubber boom.

Pucallpa lies at about 154 meters on the Ucayali River, a major Amazon tributary. It grew rapidly after 1945 when a highway to Lima through Tingo Maria ended its isolation, and the 2017 census made it the second largest city in the Peruvian Amazon after Iquitos.

Puerto Maldonado, at about 183 meters, closes the lowland section where the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers meet. Juan Villalta established it on July 10, 1902 as a trading station named for the explorer Faustino Maldonado, and it sits near Manu National Park and Tambopata National Reserve.

Huánuco is the first highland stop, at about 1,880 meters where the Higueras river meets the Huallaga. Gomez de Alvarado founded it in 1539 on the site of an earlier Inca settlement and it moved to its present site in the Pillco Valley in 1541; its mild, sunny climate is sometimes described locally as among the best in the world.

Chachapoyas stands at about 2,335 meters in the northern mountains. Alonso de Alvarado founded it on September 5, 1538, and it remains fairly isolated from the rest of Peru, reached by bus from Chiclayo and Cajamarca or by flights, with an economy built on sugar cane, orchids and coffee.

Cajamarca, at about 2,750 meters in the Mashcon river valley, is the site of the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca, when Pizarro captured and later executed the Inca emperor Atahualpa. Today it is a center of dairy farming and mining, including the Yanacocha gold mine.

Ayacucho lies at about 2,761 meters, only a little higher than Cajamarca. Founded in 1540 as San Juan de la Frontera de Huamanga, it was renamed by Simon Bolivar in 1825 after the decisive Battle of Ayacucho, and it is known for 33 colonial-era churches and its Holy Week celebrations.

Huaraz sits at 3,052 meters in the Callejon de Huaylas valley about 420 kilometers north of Lima. A 1970 earthquake destroyed most of the city and killed roughly 25,000 people in the region, and it now serves as the main gateway for mountaineering and tourism in Huascaran National Park.

Huancayo, at about 3,259 meters in the Mantaro Valley, was home to the Huanca people from around 500 BC. The Huancas later allied with Pizarro during the Spanish conquest, and the 2017 census made it Peru's fifth largest city and the economic and social center of central Peru.

Huancavelica stands at about 3,676 meters in the central Andes. Viceroy Francisco de Toledo established it on August 5, 1572 as Villa Rica de Oropesa, and its colonial importance came from nearby mercury deposits used in Spanish silver extraction.

Puno stands at about 3,830 meters on the shore of Lake Titicaca in the southern Altiplano. Viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernandez de Castro established it on November 4, 1668, and it is a major tourist destination for its colonial churches and the nearby floating islands of the Uros people.

Cerro de Pasco is the summit of the trail, at about 4,330 meters and reaching 4,380 meters in its Yanacancha area, which makes it one of the highest cities in the world. It began as a mining town in 1578, silver was discovered there in 1630, and it still mines silver, copper, zinc and lead.