Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, on a coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It forms a contiguous urban area with the seaport of Callao.
Lima was founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, as the City of the Kings. It became the most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru and, after the Peruvian War of Independence, the capital of the Republic of Peru. Today around one-third of the Peruvian population lives in its metropolitan area.
The urban area of Lima covers about 800 km². It is located on mostly flat terrain in the Peruvian coastal plain, within the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers. The city slopes gently from the shores of the Pacific Ocean into valleys and mountain slopes located as high as 500 meters above mean sea level. Within the city exist isolated hills which are not connected to the surrounding hill chains, such as El Agustino, San Cosme, El Pino, La Milla, Muleria and Pro hills. The San Cristobal hill, which directly faces north of the downtown area, is the local extreme of an Andean hill outgrowth.
Metropolitan Lima has an area of 2672.28 km², of which 825.88 km² (31%) comprise the actual city and 1846.40 km² (69%) the city outskirts. The urban area extends around 60 km from north to south and around 30 km from west to east. The city center is located 15 km inland at the shore of the Rimac river, a vital resource for the city, since it carries what will become drinking water for its inhabitants and fuels the hydroelectrical dams that provide electricity to the area. While no official administrative definition for the city exists, it is usually considered to be composed of the central 30 out of the 43 districts of Lima Province, corresponding to an urban area centered on the historic Cercado de Lima district. The city is the core of the Lima Metropolitan Area, one of the ten largest metropolitan areas in the Americas.