Moquegua belongs to the strip of land between the ocean and the mountain range and it is a city mistreated by earthquakes and the authors of tourist guides. It is one of the most beautiful and interesting urban areas in our country and yet it barely appears as a point of reference on the road maps.

From the time of the colonial settlers, Moquegua was an important place due to its production of excellent wines and pisco and because of its proximity to the port of Ilo. Minerals from the Altiplano passed through Moquegua to be taken to Europe and such fine wines are exported from there that the Crown had to prohibit them because they represented competition for the products of the Iberian Peninsula. These factors gave rise to a city with elite of well-educated, refined and europeanized people whom organized their city with very good taste; it remained that way until the great crisis caused by the war of independence and later, the armed conflict with Chile.

The Main Square of Moquegua is tree-lined and serene, with a beautiful central fountain designed by Gustav Eiffel. Some large colonial and Republican era mansions continue to line its streets: a wall of what was the Cathedral, destroyed in the earthquake of the 19th century, and has been preserved to form one complete side of a block. Behind it is located a good museum, the Contisuyo, a center in which to learn about and interpret pre-Hispanic life from Toquepala man through the Chiribaya, Wari, Chuquibamba and Incan occupations.

Since the time the Cathedral became uninhabitable, the Santo Domingo church was established as a second cathedral. It is located on the corner of the square and before the 2001 earthquake it formed part of a harmonic set with a series of typically Moqueguan structures, the so- called "mojinete houses" (unfortunately many of these collapsed in that earthquake). In this temple are venerated the remains of the enigmatic Santa Fortunata, whose body, in stucco work and dressed in luxurious finery, was donated by the Vatican to the city in the 18th century. Fortunata was a martyr of Palestinian origin ordered beheaded by Diocletian. Her miracles are well known; for example, her hair that still continues to grow and the glass with her blood that does not clot that is kept in the same urn as the Sacred Host.

The "mojinete houses" are a product of the miscegenation that Moquegua also experienced and explains in large part why it thrived. Of colonial origin, they are single-floor homes whose slanted roof crowns in a flat plane -the "mojinete"- creating a space called a "tumbadillo" which serves to keep the interior cool, since the extremely dry heat of Moquegua can become asphyxiating in the summer months. There are some of these houses in the city and its outlying areas as well in Tacna and in the surroundings valleys.

Other mansions, with a different type of architecture that must be seen, are those of Herbert de la Flor on the Main Square, a private cultural center that deals with Moquegua; the Chocana house, where the poet Jose Santos Chocano spent long periods; the beautiful Las Culebras mansion; the house that has been turned into a home for the elderly, in front of Las Culebras, and built in 1868 in an elegant Republican style; the Diez Canseco mansion, with its marvelous stone façade. There are many more besides, above all in the Belen square, an enchanting corner of the city. Not to mention the Los Limoneros Hotel, a sample of the lost splendor of Moquegua and where the visitor should make a point of staying.

Moquegua was and continues to be well-known for its sweets and its liqueurs: ask historian Marcela Olivas who has documented them with tasty rigor. The Moqueguan sweets are a perfect combination of local ingredients: milk, sugar, and the fruits of a hot valley. One has to discover the pleasure of sitting down in one of the cafés whose doors open onto the city`s Main Square and dedicate to the pursuit of the alfajores, the guargueros, voladores, bizcochos and polvorones, while the branches of ancient ficus trees rustle in the wind.

The Moqueguan piscos, meanwhile, are among the best in Peru. Close to a dozen wineries have joined up to create a pisco route in Moquegua, making it possible to learn about levels of technical sophistication in the production of our liquor. The best known perhaps is the Biondi winery. The Villegas winery is also attractive for its stills, barrels of wine, big bottles of cognac and, of course, pisco. Parras y Reyes is another good one, surrounded by lovely vineyards, likewise Lopez and Ghersi.

Moquegua is located on the foot of Cerro Baul, symbol of the city and the mountain god from immemorial time. At the top of Cerro Baul, the traveler will find an esplanade dedicated to payments and offerings that the yaritis of the Aymara culture still carry out today.

In these propitiatory rituals we can observe the Aymara custom of represent in miniature the things they would like -known as alacitas- and there they are, in stone and mud, every earthly desire represented: houses, buildings, farmlands, service stations, stores, everything mixed up together within the walls of an ancient administrative center of the Wari culture.