Perú

Geography

Peru is the third largest country in South America, lies entirely within the tropics, and has three major regions:

1. A narrow coastal belt, which is mainly desert.
2. The wide Andes mountains area, which contains most of the caves, which is up to 6000m high.
3. The Amazon rain forest.

Speleology

Caves in Peru were first made famous by the visit of the great German explorer, Baron Alexander von Humboldt in 1802 and later by Raimondi in 1868. In 1932 Cesar Garcia Rosell visited many caves and in 1965 published Cavernas, grutas y cuevas del Peru. The most significant finds have been made by the London based Imperial College Karst Research Expedition in 1972.

Language - Spanish and many local Indian dialects.

Literature

• (1982): Perou 82, Expedition en Foret Amazonienne d'altitude
  Contents: Le contexte geographique, Le contexte historique, Le contexte speleologique.
  SB. 150pp. In French.
  Describes the French expedition to Cajamarca, High Amazone and a survey of previous expeditions.
  
• Garcia Rosell (1965): Cavernas, Grutas y Cuevas del Peru, 52pp Lima 1965, in Spanish.
  
• Yves Sammartino (): Speleologie Bibliographie Peru,
  

Text by Tony Oldham (2002). With kind permission.