Junín () is a department and

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

in the central

highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

and westernmost

Peruvian Amazon Peruvian Amazonia (), informally known locally as the Peruvian jungle () or just the jungle (), is the area of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, east of the Andes and Peru's borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia. Peru has the second-l ...

. Its capital is

Huancayo Huancayo (; in , '(place) with a (sacred) rock', ) is the capital of the Junín Region and Huancayo Province, in the central highlands of Peru, in the Mantaro Valley and is crossed by the Shullcas, Chilca and Mantaro rivers. It was founded as a ...

Geography

The region has a very heterogeneous

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. The western

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

located near the border with the

Lima Region The Department of Lima (), known as the Department of the Capital () until 1823, is a department and region located in the central coast of Peru; the seat of the regional government is Huacho. Lima Province, which contains the city of Lima, ...

, has snowy and ice-covered peaks. On the east, there are high glacier valleys which end up in high

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

s (''

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish language, Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechuan languages, Quechua and Aymara language, Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla people, Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extens ...

''). Among them is the

Junín Plateau Junín may refer to: Places Argentina * Junín Partido **Junín, Buenos Aires ***Junín Airport *Junín Department, Mendoza ** Junín, Mendoza * Junín Department, San Luis * Junín de los Andes, Neuquén Colombia * Junín, Cundinamarca * Jun ...

that is located between the cities of

La Oroya La Oroya is a city on the River Mantaro and capital of the Yauli Province, located in the Department of Junin in central Peru. It is situated on the eastern watershed of the Andes at an altitude of 3,745 m, some 176 km east-north-east of t ...

and

Cerro de Pasco Cerro de Pasco is a city in central Peru, located at the top of the Andean Mountains. It is the capital of both the Pasco Province and the Department of Pasco, and an important mining center of silver, copper, zinc and lead. At an elevation of ...

. The

Mantaro Valley The Mantaro Valley, also known as Jauja Valley, is a fluvial inter-Andean valley of Junin region, east of Lima, the capital of Peru. The Mantaro River flows through the fertile valley which produces potatoes, maize, and vegetables among othe ...

becomes wider before Jauja up to the limit with the

Huancavelica Region Huancavelica () is a department and region in Peru with an area of and a population of 347,639 ( 2017 census). The capital is the city Huancavelica. The region is bordered by the departments of Lima and Ica in the west, Junín in the north, ...

. This area concentrates a large share of the region's population. Towards the east, near the

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

, there is an abundance of narrow and deep

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

s, with highly inclined hillsides, covered by woods under low-lying clouds. The

Waytapallana mountain range The Huaytapallana mountain range (from Quechua ''wayta'' 'flower' and ''pallana'' '(place) where something is collected', thus '(place) where flowers are collected') lies in the Junín Region in the Andes of Peru. It extends between 11°47' and 1 ...

is located in the south central area of the region. This range holds a great fault which is the reason earthquakes happen in the area. The upper

, with valleys of great length, modelled by the Tulumayu, Pawqartampu, Perené and Ene rivers, is located on the eastern side of the region. Lake Junin, the largest

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

entirely within Peru, is located in the region, except for its northernmost tip which belongs to the

Pasco Region Pasco () is a department and region in central Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in ...

. Junín Region is also home to Mount Toromocho. It is rich in minerals, including silver, copper, mercury, bismuth, molybdenum, lead and coal.

Boundaries

The Junín Region borders the regions of Pasco in the north, Ucayali in the northeast and

Cusco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department. The city was the cap ...

in the east. The

Mantaro River The Mantaro River (, ) is a long river running through the central region of Peru. Its Quechua name means "great river". The word "Mantaro" may be a word originally from the Asháninka language, who live downstream along the Ene River. The Mantar ...

marks the border of the region with the

Ayacucho Ayacucho (, , derived from the words ''aya'' ("death" or "soul") and ''k'uchu'' ("corner") in honour of the battle of Ayacucho), founded in 1540 as San Juan de la Frontera de Huamanga and known simply as Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga) until 1825, i ...

and

Huancavelica Huancavelica () or Wankawillka in Quechua is a city in Peru. It is the capital of the department of Huancavelica and according to the 2017 census had a population of 49,570 people. The city was established on August 5, 1572 by the Viceroy ...

regions in the south and in the west it is bordered by the

Climate

The Junín Region has an average annual temperature of 13.1 °C (56 °F), a maximum high of 17 °C (62 °F) and a minimum low of 0 °C (32 °F). The

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

runs from November to April, and from December to March in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

areas.

Political division

The region is divided into nine provinces (, singular: ), which are composed of 123 districts (''distritos'', singular: ''distrito''). The provinces and their capitals are:

Demographics

Languages

According to the

2007 Peru Census The 2007 Peru Census was a detailed enumeration of the Peruvian population. It was conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática on Sunday, October 21, 2007. Its full name in Spanish is XI Censo de Población y VI de Vivie ...

, the language learnt first by most of the residents was

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

(86.63%) followed by

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

(9.29%). The Quechua varieties spoken in Junín are Huanca Quechua (in the Southwest), Yaru Quechua (in the Northwest, especially in Tarma Province). The following table shows the results concerning the language learnt first in the Junín Region by province:inei.gob.pe
INEI, Peru, Censos Nacionales 2007

History

Until the arrival of the

Incas The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

the eastern plains of the Junín region, known in Quechua as "Pampas," were inhabited by the Yanesha' and the Asháninka people, who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and tended to be hostile towards outsiders. Meanwhile, the southwestern Mantaro Valley was inhabited by the Huancas.

Sapa Inca The Sapa Inca (from ; ) was the monarch of the Inca Empire (''Tawantinsuyu'' "the region of the four rovinces), as well as ruler of the earlier Kingdom of Cusco and the later Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba, Peru, Vilcabamba. While the origins ...

Pachacuti Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, also called Pachacútec (), was the ninth Sapa Inca of the Chiefdom of Cusco, which he transformed into the Inca Empire (). Most archaeologists now believe that the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu was built as an ...

conquered this region in 1460, bringing it under the domain of the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

became the region's main highway rest stop on the Inca Trail. Woolen mills (known in Spanish as "obrajes" or "mills") were created during the viceroyalty, where the tissue and its craft became a tradition that continues today. On September 13, 1825,

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

issued a decree creating what is now the Junín Region, to commemorate his victory in the

Battle of Junín The Battle of Junín was a large cavalry engagement of the Peruvian War of Independence, fought in the highlands of the Junín Region on 6 August 1824. The preceding February the royalists had regained control of Lima, and having regrouped in T ...

, the last real cavalry charge in South America where no shot was fired. Major events of national importance occurred during this period: Huancayo hosted the Assembly that issued the 1839 Constitution and on December 3, 1854,

Ramón Castilla Ramón Castilla y Marquesado (; 31 August 1797 – 30 May 1867) was a Peruvian ''caudillo'' who served as President of Peru three times as well as the Interim President of Peru (Revolution Self-proclaimed President) in 1863. His earliest p ...

signed a decree that granted freedom to

Afro-Peruvian Black Peruvians or Afro-Peruvians are Peruvians of mostly or partially African descent. They mostly descend from enslaved Africans brought to Peru after the arrival of the conquistadors. Early history The first Africans arrived, as enslaved ...

slaves.

Places of interest

* Asháninka Communal Reserve * Chacamarca Historical Sanctuary * Convent of Santa Rosa de Ocopa * Gran Pajonal *

Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve The Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve () is a protected area in Peru located in the Lima Region, Yauyos Province and in the Junín Region, Jauja Province. It lies with the Peruvian Yungas and Central Andean wet puna ecoregions. Sima Pumaqu ...

* Otishi National Park * Pampa Hermosa Reserved Zone

Sources

External links

Gobierno Regional Junín
– Junín Regional Government official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Junin Region Junin Junin