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Yungay, Peru

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Central & South American
Geography

   Yungay is a town in the Ancash Region in north central Peru, South
   America.

Location

   Yungay is located at 09°08′22″S, 77°44′42″W in the Callejón de Huaylas
   on Río Santa at an elevation of 2,500 m, 450 km north of Lima, the
   country's capital. East of the small town there are the mountain ridges
   of snow-covered Cordillera Blanca, with Huascarán, Peru's highest
   mountain, no more than 15 km east of Yungay.

   Yungay is the capital of Yungay Province, as well as the main town in
   the Yungay District. Yungay Province has a population of 60,000 ( 2000
   estimate). The Province of Yungay occupies part of the Callejón de
   Huaylas, the Conchucos Valley (Yanama), the coast of Ancash (Quillo)
   and the Huascarán National Park.

History

   The "Restoration" army, an invading Chilean expedition during the War
   of the Confederation, defeated the army of the Peru-Bolivian
   Confederation during the Battle of Yungay on January 20, 1839, marking
   the dissolution of the short-lived confederacy.

   A remarkable event of the history of Peru happened in Yungay, where in
   the Guitarrero Cave US archeologist Thomas F. Lynch (University of
   Cornell, USA, 1969) discovered very old cultural vestiges from circa
   10,000 BCE, making this place "one of the great testimonies of the
   origin of agriculture in América".

Ancash Earthquake

   On May 31, 1970 a landslide caused by the 1970 Ancash earthquake buried
   the whole town, killing more than 20,000 persons. Only 400 people
   survived, most of whom were in the cemetery and stadium at the time of
   the earthquake, as these zones were the highest in town.

   The Peruvian government has forbidden excavation in the area where the
   old town of Yungay is buried, declaring it a national cemetery.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungay%2C_Peru"
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