These are high mountains with steep granite peaks, rising above icy ridges and twisted glaciers. The snow and ice on the ridges is often beautifully sculpted, carrying large and complex cornices. The Pacific coast is at places only 60 miles from the main crest of the mountains, and never more than 100 miles. Considering offshore depths, the altitude differential here is 40,000 feet in just 180 miles.
Short rivers tumble steeply to the sea.
To the east, glaciers feed the headwaters of the vast Amazon system to flow some 3,500 miles to the distant Atlantic. Throughout the mountains there are reminders of the Inca empire, who made their base here. The mountain people who currently reside here are descendants of the Incas. Many live as high as 16,000 feet, farming potatoes and herding flocks of llamas. In Peru the rain comes from the hot damp Amazon forests in the east.