Peru as loose confederation of cities scattered along the coast of northern Peru and southern Ecuador, the Chimu flourished from about 1140 to 1450. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo. In the highlands, both the Tiahuanaco culture, near Lake Titicaca in both Peru and Bolivia, and the Wari culture, near the present-day city of Ayacucho, developed large urban settlements and wide-ranging state systems between 500 and 1000 AD. In the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in
Geography of South America number of rugged, generally dry "islands", the highest of which is the Sierra de Cordoba near the city of that name. Argentine Patagonia is a Paleozoic plateau now heavily dissected by rivers flowing from the Andes. The largest country in South America by far, in both area and population, is Brazil. Regions in South America include the Andean States, the Guianas and the Southern Cone. As part of the Hadley model of atmospheric circulation, the equator is characterised by the ascending branches of separate meridional cells, driven by intense insolation. The vertical convection draws in air from the surrounding atmosphere,