Noroeste

The Noroeste — the Andean north-west, the oldest-settled part of Argentina. Colonised from Peru in the 16th century, it was the populous mission-and-mining hinterland of silver Potosí long before Buenos Aires mattered. Its Andean, indigenous (Quechua- and Aymara-influenced) character — the polychrome Quebrada de Humahuaca, the carnival, panpipes, empanadas salteñas and adobe villages — makes it feel closer to Bolivia than to Europe, and it remains poorer and more conservative than the Europeanised Pampa, the sharpest cultural contrast in the country.

• Existed: 1553 CE – present
• Type: Entity