Lima sprawls well beyond its original Spanish site at a bridgeable point on the Rímac River . Disgorging precipitously from the high Andes, the Rímac has formed a flat-topped alluvial cone, on which the early Spanish colonists established their settlement. Since almost the entire coastal plain in central Peru consists of unconsolidated fluvioglacial deposits, cliff erosion and earthquakes are continual threats. In expanding from its original site, the city has incorporated within its fabric various hills and valleys that are also prone to earth tremors and flash floods. One of the most notable characteristics of Lima is the barren, unvegetated desert that surrounds it on all sides; the grayish-yellow sands support almost no plant or animal life, save where water has been artificially provided.

Because clouds tend to trap airborne pollutants, Limeños (residents of Lima) can often taste the air. A permanent problem resulting from the high humidity is oxidation, rust being a common sight. Many of the wealthier citizens established winter homes on the coast north or south of the city proper or in such localities as La Molina, a short distance to the east of Lima, where the climate is free of fog and cloud.

Though Lima is located at a tropical latitude , the cool offshore Peru (also called Humboldt) Current helps produce a year-round temperate climate. Average temperature ranges 60–64 °F (16–18 °C) in the winter months of May to November and 70–80 °F (21–27 °C) in the summer months of December to April. The cooling of the coastal air mass produces thick cloud cover throughout the winter, and the garúa (dense sea mist) often rolls in to blanket areas of the city. Precipitation, which rarely exceeds 2 inches (50 mm) per annum, usually results from the condensation of the garúa. Lima is perhaps best described as cold and damp in winter and hot and humid in summer.

The city layout

Lima contains a series of townscapes well defined by its long history. The core of old Lima, delineated by Spanish colonists in the 16th century and partly enclosed by defensive walls in the 17th, retains its checkerboard street pattern. Bounded on the north by the Rímac and on the east, south, and west by broad avenues, old Lima contains a few restored colonial buildings (Torre Tagle Palace, the cathedral, and the Archbishop’s Palace) interspersed among buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries, many of which were built upon the sites of former colonial residences that had collapsed during the major earthquakes that have struck the city. The old walls, however, were demolished in the mid-19th century. The two principal squares (Plaza de Armas and Plaza Bolívar) still provide the foci of architectural interest within central Lima, and the enclosed wooden balconies so typical of the colonial city have now become features to be preserved or restored. The Presidential Palace (built on the site of Pizarro’s house) and many other buildings reflect the past popularity of the French Empire style. On the north side of the Rímac, the old colonial suburb of the same name conserves relics of its past in its curved, narrow streets, tightly packed with single-story houses, and its Alameda de los Descalzos (“Boulevard of the Barefoot Monks”).

Plaza de Armas, Lima. © RM/Shutterstock.com

Presidential Palace, Lima. © Jennifer Stone/Shutterstock.com

Cathedral of Lima. © Carlos E. Santa Maria/Shutterstock.com

Lima: cathedral altar Main altar of the cathedral of Lima. © Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

The former residential zone of central Lima has undergone several radical modifications, especially since the 1930s. Most of the old spacious mansions have been subdivided so that they now accommodate as many as 50 families. These inner-city slums (variously called tugurios, corralones, and callejones) have been occupied by immigrants from the countryside striving to gain a foothold in the urban economy and society. Sanitary conditions in such zones are often very poor.

Lima: homes Colourful homes on a hillside in Lima, Peru. Photos.com/Jupiterimages

Other parts of old Lima have experienced demolition and reconstruction. Housing has given way to banks, insurance offices, law firms, and government offices. There have been repeated attempts to stimulate pride in El Cercado (the formerly walled enclosure), although some Limeños regard it as a place to pass through rather than to preserve and enhance. One finds little evidence of gentrification in Lima; unlike other Latin American capitals and even other cities within Peru, central Lima contains relatively few outstanding architectural features.

Lima did not expand much beyond the walls of the old city until railways and tramlines were constructed in the mid-19th century. For the next 75 years growth was steady, the axes of urban development from old Lima assuming distinctive characters: the area west to Callao became the industrial corridor; the sweeping bay frontage to the south from Barranco to Magdalena was transformed into the choice residential zone; and eastward, toward Vitarte, a mix of industrial and lower-class suburbs emerged. As the pace of urban expansion increased in the 1930s, small communities formed in the open country between Lima and the coast. These gradually coalesced into such urban districts as La Victoria, Lince, San Isidro, and Breña. The numerous farms and small tracts of cultivated land between suburbs and barren, dry land also became urbanized as immigrants from the interior occupied these areas. In the 1950s Lima became noted for these barriadas (squatter camps of shanties), which as they became more permanently established were renamed pueblos jóvenes (“young towns”). These communities have come to contain one-third of the population of metropolitan Lima. The older pueblos jóvenes, such as Comas, are now difficult to distinguish from the “established” sections of the city, since the early constructions of cardboard, tin cans, and wicker matting have long since given way to bricks, cement blocks, and neat gardens.

Lima’s contemporary townscapes provide such contrasts that it is easy to forget that the rich and the poor belong to the same society. Within a few blocks one can move from luxury to abject poverty. With downtown Lima often heavily congested with traffic, suburban locations were chosen for many new businesses, factories, and shopping centres. In some areas, classic corner stores run by Chinese and Japanese immigrants and their descendants are fighting a losing battle against the competition of large, hygienic supermarkets. Elsewhere, however, open-air markets and crowds of ambulantes (street vendors) are the rule.