Amazon River near Iquitos

Iquitos is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, capital of the Maynas Province and Loreto Region, and ninth most populous city in Peru. Located at approximately 3.75 degrees south latitude and 73.25 degrees west longitude on a bend of the upper Amazon River where the Nanay River joins from the north, Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road. All access is by river or by air, and the city has grown as a commercial and administrative centre for the upper Amazon region, its streets crowded with motorcycles, tuk-tuks and the constant river traffic of cargo boats and passenger launches.

The Amazon River, which begins in the Peruvian Andes and flows over 6,600 kilometres to the Atlantic Ocean, is the largest river by discharge volume in the world, moving more water than the next seven largest rivers combined. The headwaters of the Amazon system rise in the high Andes of Peru, and the river grows from a series of Andean streams into a waterway of extraordinary power that drains the entire Amazon basin. Near Iquitos, roughly 4,000 river kilometres from the Atlantic, the river is already immense, brown and fast-flowing, carrying vast quantities of sediment eroded from the Andes.

The river near Iquitos is a constantly shifting body of water that rises and falls up to 12 metres between the dry and rainy seasons, transforming the landscape dramatically. At the confluence with the Nanay River, the contrast between the dark Amazon and the blackwater Nanay creates a striking visual division that can be seen clearly from elevated points in the city. The colour of the Amazon itself changes with the season, from a lighter tea-brown during floods to a deeper chocolate hue during the dry period.

Iquitos grew to prominence during the rubber boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the demand for latex from wild rubber trees made the Amazon region one of the most valuable territories in South America. The fortunes of the rubber era are visible in the city's Belle Epoque architecture: the Iron House near the Plaza de Armas was imported from Europe and assembled in Iquitos by being shipped upriver in pieces, and the ornate mansions along the main avenues still bear witness to the wealth that flowed through the port. When synthetic rubber was developed in the early twentieth century the boom ended abruptly, but the architecture remained.

The surrounding Peruvian Amazon is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, part of a forest ecosystem that contains an estimated 10 percent of all plant and animal species on earth. The river teems with pink river dolphins, caimans, anacondas, piranhas and hundreds of fish species. Jungle lodges within a few hours of Iquitos offer guided walks, river excursions in traditional dugout canoes, night-time wildlife spotting and visits to indigenous communities whose cultures are rooted in the forest.

Despite its remoteness and the logistical challenges of access, Iquitos is a vibrant, cosmopolitan Amazonian city with a distinctive cultural identity shaped by its jungle setting, its colonial and rubber-era history, and its role as the gateway to one of the most extraordinary natural environments on earth. The sounds of the forest penetrate the city streets, the river is always present as both a lifeline and a force of nature, and the surrounding protected areas represent one of humanity's last large-scale examples of intact tropical wilderness.

Iquitos is the largest car-free city in the world, accessible only by river or air, making the journey itself part of the adventure.

The upper Amazon near Iquitos is among the most biodiverse freshwater environments on earth, with pink river dolphins, caimans, anacondas and hundreds of fish species.

The rubber-boom Belle Epoque architecture, including the Iron House imported from Europe piece by piece, is a vivid window into a vanished era of Amazonian wealth.