Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Arica

(Encyclopedia)Arica ärēˈkä [key], city, N Chile, on the Pacific Ocean, just south of the Peruvian border and at the northern limit of the Atacama Desert. Peru ceded Arica to C...

Chimu

(Encyclopedia)Chimu chēmo͞oˈ [key], ancient civilization on the desert coast of N Peru. It is believed to have begun c.1200. The Moche, an earlier civilization, was previously known as early Chimu or proto-Chimu...

Grace, William Russell

(Encyclopedia)Grace, William Russell, 1832–1904, American financier, b. Queenstown, Ireland. He was in business in England and Peru before establishing (1865) W. R. Grace & Company in New York City. After Per...

Thersites

(Encyclopedia)Thersites thərsīˈtēz [key], in Greek legend, member of the Greek army in the Trojan War. He was famous for his ugliness, his unpleasant temper, and his love of argument. When he mocked Achilles fo...

Native American languages

(Encyclopedia)Native American languages, languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arriv...

Choquequirao

(Encyclopedia)Choquequirao [Quechua,=cradle of gold], Inca site in Peru, about 95 mi (155 km) W of Cuzco. Lying at 9,950 ft (3,030 m), in the spurs of the Salkantay mountain range above the Apurímac River, it is s...

Santa Cruz, Andrés

(Encyclopedia)Santa Cruz, Andrés ändrāsˈ sänˈtä kro͞os [key], 1792?–1865, president of Bolivia (1829–39). In 1820 he joined the revolutionists against Spain and, as Bolívar's chief of staff, participat...

Buenos Aires

(Encyclopedia)Buenos Aires bwāˈnəs īˈrēz, ârˈēz, Span. bwāˈnōs īˈrās ...

Puno

(Encyclopedia)Puno po͞oˈnō [key], city (1993 pop. 97,796), alt. 12,648 ft (3,855 m), capital of Puno dept., SE Peru, on an embayment of Lake Titicaca. It is a commercial, tourist, and transportation center of SE...

Fujimori, Alberto

(Encyclopedia)Fujimori, Alberto älbĕrˈtō fo͞oˌjĭmôrˈē [key], 1938–, president of Peru (1990–2000), b. Lima, Peru. The son of Japanese immigrants, he was educated in Peru and attended Univ. of Wisconsi...