Arequipa, the chief town of the department, stands at the foot of Misti, in the fertile valley of the Chile, 7775 feet above the level of the sea, in lat. 16° 16' S., long. 72° 3Γ W. It is divided into five districts—Santo Domingo, San Francesco, La Merced, San Augustin, and Miraflores— contains 2064 houses, and has a population of about 30,000. In each of the districts there is a monastery and a church; and besides there are three nunneries in the city. The cathedral is quite modern, the former building having been destroyed by fire in 1849. Solidity rather than beauty is the principal characteristic of Arequipan architecture, as might be expected in a city so liable to suffer from earthquakes. These occur with great frequency, and are sometimes of great severity; in 1582, 1609, 1784, and 1868 the city was greatly damaged. In general the streets run at right angles, and are wide and well paved. The better houses are all built in the Spanish style, with two or three courts; the walls are massive, and the ceilings vaulted. The material used is a soft magnesian limestone. The town has a faculty of medicine which rivals that of Chu-quisaca in Upper Peru, a university, two academies, a college founded by Grand-Marshal de la Fuente, a public library, established in 1821, two printing-offices, each publishing a small newspaper, an hospital, and a foundling asylum. Arequipa is united to Molienda on the coast by a railroad completed in 1870, 107 miles in length, nearly the whole of which is over a waterless desert. An iron pipe, which supplies Molienda with water, runs along the line for 85 miles. The railway has now been extended across the Andes, reaching a height of 14,660 feet, to Puno, which is connected with Bolivia by steam navigation across Lake Titicaca.