Callao

About Callao

Callao is a seaside city and constitutional province in Peru. Located next to the Pacific Ocean, it forms part of the Lima metropolitan area alongside Lima province. Its autonomous status dates back to 1836, when it was declared a Littoral Province of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, after which it was declared a Constitutional Province by the government of Ramón Castilla in 1857.

Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Founded in 1537 by the Spaniards, the city has a long naval history as one of the main ports in Spanish America and the Pacific, having been a vital Spanish town of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Central Callao is about 15 km (9.3 mi) west of the Historic Centre of Lima.

The name of the city and province is derived from callao, a nautical Spanish term for a pebble, replaced today by guijarro. It had been previously believed that the word was of Native origin, possibly Quechua or Aymara in origin. Proponents of this theory included a number of prominent historians of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Manuel de Mendiburu, Carlos Romero, and Ricardo Palma, among others...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.