PIURA

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 683 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PIG-POL

PIURA , the northernmost maritime department of Peru, bounded north by the Gulf of

Guayaquil

GUAYAQUIL, or SANTIAGO DE GUAYAQUIL

, N.E. by

Ecuador

ECUADOR (officially La Republica del Ecuador)

, S. by the departments of Cajamarca and Lambayeque, and W. by the Pacific. Area, 14,849 sq. m.; pop. (1906, estimate), 154,080-both totals exclusive of the province of Tumbes, or Tumbez (area, about 1980 sq. m.; pop., in 1906, about 8000), which has been administratively separated from the department for military reasons. The department belongs partly to the arid coastal plain that extends from the Gulf of

Guayaquil

GUAYAQUIL, or SANTIAGO DE GUAYAQUIL

southward nearly to Valparaiso, and partly to a broken mountainous region belonging to the Western Cordilleras. The coastal zone is traversed by the Tumbes, Chira and Piura rivers, which have their sources in the melting snows of the higher Andes and flow westward across the desert to the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

. The valleys of the Chira and Piura are irrigated and maintain large populations. Rough

cotton

COTTON
COTTON (Fr. coton; from Arab. qutun)
COTTON, CHARLES (163o–1687)
COTTON, GEORGE
EDWARD
- EDWARD
LYNCH
- LYNCH, PATRICIO (1825–1886)
(1813–1866)
COTTON, JOHN (1585–1652)
COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE

, called " vegetable wool," and tobacco are the principal products, and are also produced in the valley of the Tumbes and in some of the elevated mountain districts. On the upland pastures cattle have long been raised, and goat-breeding has been added in modern times. Mules also are reared. Petroleum is an important product, and there are wells at a number of places along the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

, from Tumbes to Sechura, the most productive being those of Talara and Zorritos. There are

sulphur

SULPHUR

deposits in the Sechura desert, and salt is manufactured at some places on the southern coast. The making of Panama hats from the fibre of the " toquilla " palm is a household industry. The

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

is Piura (est. pop. 9100 in 1906), on the Piura river, about 35 M. (direct) E.S.E. of Paita, and 164 ft. above sea-level. It was founded by

Pizarro

PIZARRO, FRANCISCO (c. 1471 or 1475-1541)

in 1531 under the name of San Miguel, at a place called Tangarara, nearer Paita, hut the present site was afterwards adopted. A railway (6o m. long) by way of Sullana connects with the port of Paita, and an extension of 6 m. runs S.S.E. to Catacaos. Other towns of the department, with their estimated populations in 1906, are: Tumbes, or Tumbez (2300), the most northern port of Peru, on the Gulf of Guayaquil, celebrated as the place where

Pizarro

PIZARRO, FRANCISCO (c. 1471 or 1475-1541)

landed in 1531; Paita; Sechura (6450), on Sechura Bay in the southern part of the department, with exports of salt and

sulphur

SULPHUR

; Sullana (5300), an inland town with railway connexions in the fertile Chira valley; Molropon (3800) on the upper Piura; Huancabamba, the centre of a tobacco

district

DISTRICT

in the mountains; and Tambo Grande (61oo) and Chulucanas (4600), both in the fertile Piura valley above the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

.

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