Arequipa, the White City, the Silent Stones

Rooms almost glow from within. Light reflects softly from surfaces as if they're white-washed, made of ivory-tinted, slightly purplish stone, called sillar. Their whiteness the Spanish invaders admired so much that they made building material out of it. And why not? This rhyolitic rock is plentiful in the Western Andes where volcanic pyroclastic flows deposited countless acres of them long ago.... Continue Reading →

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