# Roots Earth in Lima: audio stories about 50 places Canonical: https://rootsearth.com/cities/lima Published: 16 September 2026 Roots Earth has audio stories about 50 places in Lima, Peru, in Latin America. The Lima stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Lima, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people. The 50 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026. ## The 50 places in Lima with audio stories In the order the app shows them. 1. Plaza Mayor of Lima 2. Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima 3. Government Palace of Peru 4. Basilica and Convent of San Francisco 5. Plaza San Martín 6. Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo 7. Larco Museum 8. Basilica and Convent of La Merced 9. Torre Tagle Palace 10. Archbishop's Palace of Lima 11. Huaca Pucllana 12. Lima Art Museum 13. Magic Water Circuit (Parque de la Reserva) 14. National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru 15. Casa de Aliaga 16. Basilica and Convent of San Pedro 17. Church of San Agustín 18. Plaza Bolívar 19. Catacombs of Lima 20. Historic Centre of Lima 21. Casa de Osambela 22. Casa Goyeneche 23. Sanctuary of Saint Rose of Lima 24. Teatro Municipal de Lima 25. Desamparados Station (House of Peruvian Literature) 26. Plaza de Toros de Acho 27. Park of the Exposition 28. National Stadium of Peru 29. Plaza Dos de Mayo 30. Jirón de la Unión 31. Huaca Huallamarca 32. Larcomar 33. Real Felipe Fortress 34. Museum of the Nation 35. Barranco District 36. Bridge of Sighs 37. Kennedy Park (Miraflores Central Park) 38. Barrio Chino (Chinatown) 39. Mercado Central de Lima 40. Barrios Altos 41. Presbítero Matías Maestro Cemetery 42. Alameda de los Descalzos 43. Paseo de Aguas 44. Rímac District 45. El Olivar (San Isidro Olive Grove) 46. Museo Pedro de Osma 47. Parque de la Muralla 48. Parque de las Leyendas 49. National University of San Marcos 50. Mercado N.1 de Surquillo ## Is there an audio guide for Plaza Mayor of Lima? Yes. Plaza Mayor of Lima has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. It is place 1 of the 50 Lima places in the app, at -12.04583, -77.03056. Every one of the other 49 places in the list above has the same two stories. Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself. ## How to use Roots Earth in Lima Open Roots Earth and choose Lima. The city has its own map of places with all 50 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order. You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. --- **In full** All 50 places in Lima, in the app's order, with their coordinates. ## All 50 places in Lima, with coordinates Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print. ### 1. Plaza Mayor of Lima - Coordinates: -12.04583, -77.03056 - In one line: The founding square of Lima, laid out by Francisco Pizarro in 1535 as the heart of the City of Kings. Arcaded palaces, a bronze fountain from 1651, and four centuries of Peruvian history ring this colonial plaza. ### 2. Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima - Coordinates: -12.04694, -77.02972 - In one line: Lima's principal church, begun by Francisco Pizarro in 1535 and rebuilt repeatedly after earthquakes. Blending Renaissance, Baroque, and Gothic elements, it guards carved choir stalls, richly decorated chapels, and the tomb of the conquistador who founded the city. ### 3. Government Palace of Peru - Coordinates: -12.0448, -77.0298 - In one line: Peru's presidential residence and seat of government, standing where Francisco Pizarro built his house in 1535. The grand Neo-Baroque building seen today rose between the 1920s and 1938, famed for its gilded halls and the daily changing of the guard. ### 4. Basilica and Convent of San Francisco - Coordinates: -12.0455, -77.02739 - In one line: A Franciscan complex of Limeño Baroque splendor, rebuilt from 1657 after an earthquake. Beneath its tiled cloisters and historic library lie vast catacombs holding the remains of tens of thousands of colonial dead, one of Lima's most haunting sights. ### 5. Plaza San Martín - Coordinates: -12.0515, -77.0345 - In one line: An elegant Beaux-Arts square opened in 1921 for the centenary of Peruvian independence. Ringed by white Belle-Époque facades and centered on a bronze equestrian statue of the liberator José de San Martín, it remains a gathering place for celebration and protest. ### 6. Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo - Coordinates: -12.044, -77.0319 - In one line: A Dominican church and convent founded in the 1530s, where the University of San Marcos was born in 1551. Its Rococo bell tower rises in pink and white above cloisters of Sevillian tile, and it guards the relics of three Peruvian saints. ### 7. Larco Museum - Coordinates: -12.0725, -77.07086 - In one line: A private museum founded in 1926 by Rafael Larco Hoyle, set in an 18th-century viceregal mansion built over a pre-Columbian pyramid. It holds a vast collection of ancient Peruvian art, including Moche gold, fine textiles, and a famous gallery of erotic ceramics. ### 8. Basilica and Convent of La Merced - Coordinates: -12.0483, -77.0327 - In one line: One of Lima's founding churches, begun in 1535 and devoted to Our Lady of Mercy. Its carved stone facade is a masterpiece of Liman Baroque, fronting three cloisters and a venerated silver cross of the Conquest. ### 9. Torre Tagle Palace - Coordinates: -12.04884, -77.02931 - In one line: Completed in 1735 for the Marquis of Torre Tagle, this is Lima's finest surviving viceregal mansion. Its carved cedar balconies, Sevillian tilework, and arcaded courtyard now house Peru's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ### 10. Archbishop's Palace of Lima - Coordinates: -12.0462, -77.0296 - In one line: Standing on the Plaza Mayor beside the cathedral, this Neo-colonial palace opened in 1924. Designed by Ricardo de Jaxa Malachowski, it is famed for the long carved cedar balcony running across its facade, and remains the residence of Lima's archbishop. ### 11. Huaca Pucllana - Coordinates: -12.11111, -77.03389 - In one line: A great adobe pyramid built by the Lima culture between roughly 200 and 700 CE, rising 22 meters from seven stacked platforms. This pre-Inca ceremonial and administrative center now stands surrounded by the modern district of Miraflores. ### 12. Lima Art Museum - Coordinates: -12.06045, -77.03697 - In one line: Housed in the iron-framed Palacio de la Exposición of 1872, Lima Art Museum spans roughly 3,000 years of Peruvian creativity, from pre-Columbian ceramics to contemporary works, within the green expanse of the Parque de la Exposición. ### 13. Magic Water Circuit (Parque de la Reserva) - Coordinates: -12.07083, -77.03333 - In one line: Opened in 2007 within the 1929 Parque de la Reserva, this circuit of 13 illuminated fountains holds a Guinness World Record as the largest in a public park. After dark, water, light, music, and lasers combine in dazzling shows. ### 14. National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru - Coordinates: -12.07722, -77.06194 - In one line: Founded in 1822, Peru's oldest and largest museum fills a colonial mansion in Pueblo Libre where the liberators once lodged. Its galleries hold the Raimondi Stela, Paracas textiles, and the Tello Obelisk, tracing thousands of years of Andean civilization. ### 15. Casa de Aliaga - Coordinates: -12.0444, -77.0303 - In one line: A colonial mansion begun in 1536 beside the Plaza Mayor, the Casa de Aliaga has housed the same family for seventeen generations. Its gilded salons, carved balconies, and tranquil courtyards make it among the oldest continuously inhabited homes in the Americas. ### 16. Basilica and Convent of San Pedro - Coordinates: -12.04944, -77.02868 - In one line: Completed in 1638 as the church of Lima's Jesuit college, San Pedro preserves one of the city's richest colonial interiors. Behind a sober facade glow gilded altars, blue-and-white azulejo tiles, and intricately carved pulpits surviving from the seventeenth century. ### 17. Church of San Agustín - Coordinates: -12.0466, -77.0333 - In one line: Founded in the 1570s by Augustinian friars, this Lima church is famed for its deeply carved churrigueresque stone facade, completed around 1710. Inside waits the haunting wooden sculpture of Death, a skeleton archer attributed to Baltasar Gavilán. ### 18. Plaza Bolívar - Coordinates: -12.0476, -77.026 - In one line: A historic square in central Lima named for the liberator Simón Bolívar, dominated by his equestrian statue and faced by the Legislative Palace of the Congress of Peru. Beside it stands the former Tribunal of the Inquisition, now a museum. ### 19. Catacombs of Lima - Coordinates: -12.0454, -77.0275 - In one line: Beneath the Convent of San Francisco lie Lima's colonial catacombs, where bones were arranged in geometric patterns. Begun by Franciscans in 1546 and used until 1810, this underground cemetery is thought to hold the remains of approximately 25,000 people. ### 20. Historic Centre of Lima - Coordinates: -12.05139, -77.04306 - In one line: Founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1535 as the City of the Kings, the Historic Centre of Lima preserves the grid, churches, palaces, and famed wooden balconies of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. ### 21. Casa de Osambela - Coordinates: -12.0439, -77.0326 - In one line: Built after Martín de Osambela acquired the site in 1807, with the first part completed in 1808, this indigo-blue Lima mansion is famed for its five Louis XVI balconies and octagonal rooftop lookout. Its four storeys made it among the tallest homes of late colonial Lima. ### 22. Casa Goyeneche - Coordinates: -12.04875, -77.02956 - In one line: Casa Goyeneche is an elegant two-story mansion built in 1771 in Lima's historic center. Remodeled in 1863 with French-inspired touches, this colonial residence faces the Torre Tagle Palace and now belongs to a Peruvian bank. ### 23. Sanctuary of Saint Rose of Lima - Coordinates: -12.0426, -77.0353 - In one line: The Sanctuary of Saint Rose of Lima rises on the site of the saint's family home. Established in 1728 by the Dominican Order, it preserves the famous wishing well and draws pilgrims to the first canonized saint of the Americas. ### 24. Teatro Municipal de Lima - Coordinates: -12.0454, -77.0349 - In one line: The Teatro Municipal de Lima opened in 1920 as the Teatro Forero, designed by Manuel María Forero. Devastated by fire in 1998, it was faithfully rebuilt and reopened in 2010, and now hosts Peru's National Symphony Orchestra. ### 25. Desamparados Station (House of Peruvian Literature) - Coordinates: -12.04444, -77.02861 - In one line: Desamparados Station, designed by Rafael Marquina and completed in 1912, served Lima's central Andean railway. Crowned by an Art Nouveau stained-glass skylight, the Beaux-Arts building beside the Government Palace reopened in 2009 as the House of Peruvian Literature. ### 26. Plaza de Toros de Acho - Coordinates: -12.0414, -77.0233 - In one line: Opened in 1766 in the Rímac district, the Plaza de Toros de Acho is the oldest bullring in the Americas. Designed by Francisco Graña Garland, the adobe-and-wood arena seats around 14,000 and still hosts Lima's autumn bullfighting fair. ### 27. Park of the Exposition - Coordinates: -12.06139, -77.03667 - In one line: Opened in 1872 for Lima's International Exhibition, the Parque de la Exposición rose where the old city walls once stood. Its Neo-Renaissance palace, ornamental pavilions, fountains and lake make it one of the capital's most cherished green spaces. ### 28. National Stadium of Peru - Coordinates: -12.06728, -77.03372 - In one line: The National Stadium of Peru, rebuilt in concrete from 1951 to 1952, is the home of the national football team. Seating over 40,000, it carries the memory of the 1964 disaster, one of football's deadliest tragedies. ### 29. Plaza Dos de Mayo - Coordinates: -12.04639, -77.04278 - In one line: A grand traffic circle in central Lima built around a French-cast bronze column inaugurated in 1874. The monument honors the Battle of Callao of May 2, 1866, and stands ringed by elegant Beaux-Arts buildings. ### 30. Jirón de la Unión - Coordinates: -12.0499, -77.034 - In one line: Lima's historic main street, laid out by Francisco Pizarro in 1535 and pedestrianized in 1982. Running between Plaza Mayor and Plaza San Martín, it once hosted the elegant promenades of the city's elite and still bustles with shops and crowds. ### 31. Huaca Huallamarca - Coordinates: -12.0974, -77.0405 - In one line: A stepped adobe pyramid in the San Isidro district, raised by the Lima culture around 2,000 years ago. Once a ceremonial center and later a cemetery, it rises some 19 meters and now shelters a small site museum amid the modern city. ### 32. Larcomar - Coordinates: -12.13111, -77.03083 - In one line: A clifftop shopping and entertainment center in Miraflores, built into the bluffs above the Pacific and opened in 1998. Designed by Eduardo Figari Gold, its terraces of shops, cinemas, and restaurants look out over the ocean below. ### 33. Real Felipe Fortress - Coordinates: -12.06278, -77.14917 - In one line: A vast pentagonal stone fortress guarding the port of Callao, begun in 1747 to the designs of Louis Godin after a devastating earthquake. The largest Spanish fort in the Americas, it was the crown's final stronghold here and now houses the Army Museum. ### 34. Museum of the Nation - Coordinates: -12.0868, -77.0019 - In one line: A national museum in San Borja housed in a vast Brutalist concrete building, inaugurated in 1990. Once home to a sweeping survey of Peru's ancient cultures, it now hosts temporary shows and the Yuyanapaq photographic memorial to the country's internal conflict. ### 35. Barranco District - Coordinates: -12.14167, -77.01667 - In one line: Lima's bohemian seaside district, founded in 1874 and once a fashionable summer resort. Known for its old mansions, the Bridge of Sighs, and a path down to the ocean, it remains the artistic heart of the city, home to painters, musicians, and writers. ### 36. Bridge of Sighs - Coordinates: -12.14914, -77.02262 - In one line: A slender wooden footbridge in bohemian Barranco, opened in 1876, that spans a leafy ravine running down toward the sea. Tradition says first-time crossers who hold their breath the whole way may make a wish come true. ### 37. Kennedy Park (Miraflores Central Park) - Coordinates: -12.1211, -77.0298 - In one line: The lively central park of Miraflores, laid out in the 1920s and named for John F. Kennedy. Famous above all for its colony of well-fed street cats, it gathers painters, food carts, and crowds around an open-air amphitheater. ### 38. Barrio Chino (Chinatown) - Coordinates: -12.05096, -77.02577 - In one line: Lima's Chinatown, rooted around Calle Capon since the 1850s and one of the oldest in the Americas. A red Chinese archway marks its entrance, and chifa restaurants serve the fusion cuisine born from Chinese and Peruvian kitchens. ### 39. Mercado Central de Lima - Coordinates: -12.05, -77.0253 - In one line: Lima's downtown food market, rebuilt in 1967 after a fire and spanning some 12,000 square meters beside Chinatown. Hundreds of stalls heap fruit, fish, meat, and produce, feeding the historic center every day of the week. ### 40. Barrios Altos - Coordinates: -12.049, -77.021 - In one line: The old eastern quarter of Lima's historic center, rising on slightly higher ground beyond Abancay Avenue. Once home to convents, theaters, and markets, it flourished for centuries and remains a dense, deeply traditional corner of the colonial city. ### 41. Presbítero Matías Maestro Cemetery - Coordinates: -12.041, -77.008 - In one line: Lima's first civil cemetery, opened in 1808 and designed by the priest Matias Maestro in neoclassical style. Its marble mausoleums and sculptures hold presidents, war heroes, and writers, making it an open-air museum of Peruvian history. ### 42. Alameda de los Descalzos - Coordinates: -12.038, -77.0278 - In one line: A tree-lined promenade in the Rimac district, laid out in 1611 and modeled on a Seville garden. Marble statues of the zodiac and an English iron fence line its 450-meter walk, ending at the old barefoot Franciscan convent. ### 43. Paseo de Aguas - Coordinates: -12.0376, -77.0283 - In one line: An ornamental water promenade in Lima's Rímac district, built between 1770 and 1776 by Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Juniet. Its arched colonial centerpiece and fountains were famously linked to his romance with the actress Micaela Villegas. ### 44. Rímac District - Coordinates: -12.03528, -77.02722 - In one line: A historic district across the Rímac river from central Lima, formally established in 1920 on the old San Lázaro neighborhood. Home to the Acho bullring, the Alameda de los Descalzos, and San Cristóbal hill, its monumental zone forms part of Lima's World Heritage core. ### 45. El Olivar (San Isidro Olive Grove) - Coordinates: -12.09917, -77.03472 - In one line: A 10-hectare olive grove in San Isidro, grown from cuttings Antonio de Rivera brought from Seville in 1560. Around 1,670 ancient olive trees remain, ringed by a lagoon and modern Lima. It was declared a national monument in 1959. ### 46. Museo Pedro de Osma - Coordinates: -12.1505, -77.0218 - In one line: A museum of colonial Peruvian art in Barranco, set in a French-style mansion built in 1906 by architect Santiago Basurco. Opened as a museum in 1988, it holds Cusco School paintings, viceregal silver, and sculpture across elegant galleries and gardens. ### 47. Parque de la Muralla - Coordinates: -12.0442, -77.0268 - In one line: A riverside park in central Lima, opened in 2004, built around excavated sections of the old colonial city wall. It runs along the Rímac near the Church of San Francisco, with a site museum displaying artifacts unearthed during its creation. ### 48. Parque de las Leyendas - Coordinates: -12.06764, -77.08671 - In one line: A sprawling zoo and park in San Miguel, founded in 1964 by conservationist Felipe Benavides Barreda. Its animals are arranged by Peru's three regions, coast, mountains, and jungle, and its grounds hold the ancient huacas of the Maranga archaeological complex. ### 49. National University of San Marcos - Coordinates: -12.05833, -77.08333 - In one line: The oldest continuously operating university in the Americas, founded by royal decree on the 12th of May, 1551. Born in a Dominican convent in Lima, it now spreads across a modern University City and counts Mario Vargas Llosa and many Peruvian presidents among its alumni. ### 50. Mercado N.1 de Surquillo - Coordinates: -12.11722, -77.02056 - In one line: In Surquillo, a district carved from Miraflores in 1949, this beloved food market draws cooks and chefs for its produce, fresh fish, and herbs. Its gastronomic variety has made it a working-class culinary landmark. ## Roots Earth in short Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people. - No account - Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection - Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app). ## More from Roots Earth - [Latin America in the Roots Earth catalogue](https://rootsearth.com/cities#latin-america): every city in Latin America with its number of places and its languages. - [What Roots Earth is](https://rootsearth.com/app): the app in one page, how it works and what is in it. - [Questions travellers ask](https://rootsearth.com/faq): the cities, the languages, the account, listening without a connection. - [The 7 languages](https://rootsearth.com/languages): the seven languages with their codes and how many cities each one covers. - [Arequipa](https://rootsearth.com/cities/arequipa): 44 places in Peru with audio stories. - [Cusco](https://rootsearth.com/cities/cusco): 48 places in Peru with audio stories. - [Puno](https://rootsearth.com/cities/puno): 40 places in Peru with audio stories. - [Trujillo](https://rootsearth.com/cities/trujillo-peru): 40 places in Peru with audio stories. 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