Arica

Arica sits under the Morro, the headland stormed by Chilean troops in June 1880 in the battle that took the city from Peru during the War of the Pacific; it remained Peruvian in law until the treaty of 1929. It is also the site of some of the oldest deliberate mummification known anywhere: the Chinchorro people of this coast were treating and preserving their dead from around 5000 BC, roughly two thousand years before the earliest Egyptian mummies, and the practice covered everyone rather than an elite. The Chinchorro sites of Arica and Camarones were inscribed by UNESCO in 2021. Rain here is close to nil, which is why the bodies survived.

History

People have lived at Arica for some 10,000 years, and its early inhabitants are the first known culture to mummify their dead, about 2,000 years before the Egyptians; their mummies have been found as recently as 2004, less than a metre below the city. Spaniards under Lucas Martínez de Begazo settled here in 1541, and by 1545 Arica was the main port for the silver of Potosí, which drew pirates and privateers from Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish to William Dampier; an earthquake and tsunami struck the city in November 1604. After 1821 it belonged to independent Peru, which opened the Tacna-Arica railway, one of the first in Latin America, in 1855, and the earthquake of 13 August 1868 triggered a tsunami measured across the Pacific (Wikipedia, Arica).

The main sights

• The Morro above the city - stormed in June 1880.
• Chinchorro mummification from about 5000 BC - among the oldest deliberate practices known.
• Everyone preserved, not an elite - what makes the Chinchorro unusual.
• Inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 - the Arica and Camarones sites.

When to go

Year round; the coast is dry and mild in every season. A full day.

Before you go

The mummies are displayed at the Azapa valley museum outside the city, not in the centre. Displaying human remains is handled with restrictions and photography rules. The city itself is a working port and border town rather than a resort.

Nearby

The Azapa valley museum is inland; Putre and the altiplano are east.

Key facts