Peru

Peru has the highest concentration of potato biodiversity on Earth — over 4,000 native varieties — because potatoes were first domesticated in the Andes 8,000 years ago.

Peru was home to the Norte Chico civilisation — the oldest known civilisation in the Americas, dating to 3000 BCE. These cities were built contemporaneously with ancient Egypt, with no writing and no pottery — yet constructed massive monumental architecture.

The Amazon River, the world's largest by volume, originates in Peru from a Andean snowfield at 5,170 m altitude. Its source — Nevado Mismi — was only definitively identified in 2001.

The Nazca Lines — enormous geoglyphs etched into Peru's desert plateau, some over 1 km long — are so large they can only be seen properly from the air. They were created between 500 BCE and 500 CE and their purpose remains genuinely unknown.