Iquitos is the largest city in the rainforest of Peru. It is the capital of the Loreto Region and the Maynas Province. Located on the Amazon River, it is just 106 meters above sea level even though it is more than 3,000 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic Ocean. It is situated 125 km downstream of the confluence of Río Ucayali and Río Marañón, the two main headwaters of the Amazon River.

Different indigenous people groups like the Cocama, Huitoto, and Bora first inhabited the area.

Iquitos is covered by dense vegetation and by primary and secondary jungle with low hills and slightly rolling landscape, crisscrossed by the many rivers of the Amazon River basin, which is born at the confluence of the Marañon and Ucayali Rivers.