El Misti

Has its summit at 5,822m (19,096ft) and is the most famous volcano in Peru. Towering over Arequipa. It is a symmetrical stratovolcano with nested summit craters situated in the northern Atacama Desert.

The modern symmetrical cone, caps an older Pleistocene volcano. There have been four confirmed eruptions of El Misti since 1471 (the reign of the Inca Pachacutec). Seven other reports of eruptions are unconfirmed.

Increases in vapour activity at the volcano understandably alarmed residents in Arequipa in 1667, 1878 and again in 1949, as mudflows extended from the base of the mountain to the outskirts of the town of Arequipa, a distance of 11 miles (18km); these could easily transmute to lava given a major eruption.