Santiago

Sister cities

• Guayaquil
• Minneapolis
• Santo Domingo
• São Paulo
• Miami
• Ankara
• Tunis
• San José
• Brasília
• Madrid
• Kyiv
• Riga

History

Archaeological evidence suggests that the first human groups arrived in the Santiago basin around the 10th millennium BC. These groups were primarily nomadic hunter-gatherers, traveling from the coast to the interior to hunt guanacos during the Andean snowmelt. Pedro de Valdivia, a conquistador from Extremadura sent by Francisco Pizarro from Peru, arrived in the Mapocho valley on 13 December 1540, after a long journey from Cusco. Valdivia and his party camped by the river on the slopes of the Tupahue hill and gradually began interacting with the Picunche people who lived in the area. Valdivia later called a meeting with the local chiefs, during which he explained his plan to establish a city on behalf of Charles I of Spain. The city would serve as the capital of his governorship of Nueva Extremadura. On 12 February 1541, Valdivia officially founded the city of ('Santiago of New Extremadura') in honor of the Apostle James, the patron saint of Spain. The city was established near Huelén, which Valdivia renamed Santa Lucía. He assigned the city's layout to master builder Pedro de Gamboa, who designed a grid plan. At its center, Gamboa placed a Plaza Mayor, which became the town's central hub. Surrounding the plaza, plots were designated for the cathedral, the jail, and the governor's house. The city was divided into eight blocks from north to south and ten blocks from east to west, between the Mapocho River and the with each quarter-block, or , granted to settlers. Valdivia left for the south with his troops months later, initiating the Arauco War. Santiago was left vulnerable, and a coalition of Mapuche and Picunche tribes led by chief Michimalonco destroyed the city on 11 September 1541, despite the efforts of a Spanish garrison of 55 soldiers defending the fort.…

Geography

The city lies in the center of the Santiago Basin, a large bowl-shaped valley consisting of broad and fertile lands surrounded by mountains. The city has a varying elevation, gradually increasing from in the western areas to more than in the eastern areas. Santiago's international airport, in the west, lies at an altitude of . The historic center, Plaza de Armas, lies at . Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, at the eastern edge of the city, has an elevation of . The Santiago Basin is part of the Intermediate Depression and is remarkably flat, interrupted only by a few "island hills"; among them are Cerro Renca, Cerro Blanco, and Cerro Santa Lucía. The basin is approximately in a north–south direction and from east to west. The Mapocho River flows through the city. The city is flanked by the main chain of the Andes to the east and the Chilean Coastal Range to the west. On the north, it is bordered by the Cordón de Chacabuco, a mountain range of the Andes. At the southern border lies the Angostura de Paine, an elongated spur of the Andes that almost reaches the coast. The mountain range immediately bordering the city on the east is known as the Sierra de Ramón, which was formed due to tectonic activity of the San Ramón Fault. This range reaches 3296 meters at Cerro de Ramón. The Sierra de Ramón represents the "Precordillera" of the Andes. further east is the even larger Cordillera of the Andes, which has mountains and volcanoes that exceed and on which some glaciers are present. The tallest is the Tupungato mountain at . Other mountains include Tupungatito, San José, and Maipo. Cerro El Plomo is the highest mountain visible from Santiago's urban area. During recent decades, urban growth has outgrown the boundaries of the city, expanding to the east up the slopes…

Most-observed species

• Austral Thrush

  Turdus falcklandii Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 · Aves
  35,948
• Eared Dove

  Zenaida auriculata (Des Murs, 1847) · Aves
  33,796
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  27,173
• Rufous-collared Sparrow

  Zonotrichia capensis (P.L.S.Müller, 1776) · Aves
  25,526
• Monk Parakeet

  Myiopsitta monachus (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  22,661
• Southern House-Wren

  Troglodytes musculus J.F.Naumann, 1823 · Aves
  21,556
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  15,204
• Austral Blackbird

  Curaeus curaeus (Molina, 1782) · Aves
  12,259

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2026-04-24
  4 km W of Peñaflor, Chile
• M 4.2 — 2026-04-19
  38 km E of Villa Presidente Frei, Chile
• M 4.4 — 2026-02-02
  16 km NE of Los Andes, Chile
• M 4.1 — 2025-12-29
  46 km E of Villa Presidente Frei, Chile
• M 4.2 — 2025-12-16
  32 km ESE of Los Andes, Chile
• M 4.5 — 2025-10-26
  26 km ESE of Paine, Chile