From the 100 Facts for 100 years of Machu Picchu

From article By Catharine Hamm Los Angeles Times Travel editor

1. At 496,218 square miles, Peru, in western South America , is about the size of three Californias. California, however, has about 8 million more residents than Peru. 

There are 29.5 million people living in Peru, the majority (9 million) live in the capital of Lima.  Like California Peru is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire that extends from Southern Chile along the west coasts of South, Central and North America and down the east coast of Asia including Japan, the Philippines and New Zea land.