1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cajamarca

CAJAMARCA, or Caxamarca, a city of northern Peru, capital of a department and province of the same name, 90 m. E. by N. of Pacasmayo, its port on the Pacific coast. Pop. (1906, estimate) of the department, 333,310; of the city, 9000. The city is situated in an elevated valley between the Central and Western Cordilleras, 9400 ft. above sea level, and on the Eriznejas, a small tributary of the Marañon. The streets are wide and cross at right angles; the houses are generally low and built of clay. Among the notable public buildings are the old parish church built at the expense of Charles II. of Spain, the church of San Antonio, a Franciscan monastery, a nunnery, and the remains of the palace of Atahualpa, the Inca ruler whom Pizarro treacherously captured and executed in this place in 1533. The hot sulphur springs of Pultamarca, called the Baños del Inca (Inca’s baths) are a short distance east of the city and are still frequented. Cajamarca is an important commercial and manufacturing town, being the distributing centre for a large inland region, and having long-established manufactures of woollen and linen goods, and of metal work, leather, etc. It is the seat of one of the seven superior courts of the republic, and is connected with the coast by telegraph and telephone. A railway has been undertaken from Pacasmayo, on the coast, to Cajamarca, and by 1908 was completed as far as Yonán, 60 m. from its starting-point.

The department of Cajamarca lies between the Western and Central Cordilleras and extends from the frontier of Ecuador S. to about 7° S. lat., having the departments of Piura and Lambayeque on the W. and Amazonas on the E. Its area according to official returns is 12,542 sq. m. The upper Marañon traverses the department from S. to N. The department is an elevated region, well watered with a large number of small streams whose waters eventually find their way through the Amazon into the Atlantic. Many of its productions are of the temperate zone, and considerable attention is given to cattle-raising. Coal is found in the province of Hualgayoc at the southern extremity of the department, which is also one of the rich silver-mining districts of Peru. Next to its capital the most important town of the department is Cajamarquilla, whose population was about 6000 in 1906.