The blue city of Jodhpur - Rajasthan - India

India - Rajasthan - The blue city of Jodhpur Brahmin

India - Rajasthan – Jaisalmer, fortress town in the Thar desert

Jirón de la Unión in the city centre of Lima. - 1969

The legends are only available in German, French or Spanish
Dans un bidonville chacun essaie d'améliorer au mieux ses conditions d'existence. - Au pied du Cerro San Cristóbal - Quartier Rimac - 1969

The legends are only available in German, French or Spanish
L'explosion démographique enregistrée en Amérique du Sud est accompagnée de l'accroissement des villes. A Lima des milliers de citoyens se voient contraints, faute de logements, de s'entasser dans des barriadas (bidonvilles). - Au pied du Cerro San Cristóbal - Quartier Rimac. - 1969

The legends are only available in German, French or Spanish
La capitale du Pérou est une ville de contrastes. Dans la foule qui défile on remarque les types les plus divers de la population. Une Indienne descendue de la Cordillère offre aux passants des fruits tropicaux. - 1969

The legends are only available in German, French or Spanish
«Nombril» sacré de l'Empire du Tahuantinsuyo, aujourd'hui capitale archéologique de l'Amérique du Sud, Cuzco est une triple ville inca, coloniale et républicaine, millénaire et mystérieuse. Face à la Plaza de Armas, l'ancienne Huacaypata cérémonielle, s'élève l'église baroque de la Compania de Jésus, là où se dressait l'Amaru Cancha de Huayna Capac.

The legends are only available in German or Spanish
Das auf 3500 Meter über Meer gelegene Cuzco, der «Nabel der Welt», wurde von den Inkas um 1100 n. Chr. gegründet. 1536 zerstörten die Konquistadoren die Stadt und bauten sie in spanischer Manier wieder auf, wobei viele Inka-Fundamente verwendet wurden. So machen auch schon die Bauten das Nebeneinander und die Gleichzeitigkeit zweier Rassen und Kulturen deutlich, wie es sich mit aller Buntheit im Straßenbild zeigt. Der überwiegende Teil der 120‘000 Einwohner sind allerdings noch immer Indios. Cuzco ist Ausgangspunkt für den Besuch der meisten großen Inka-Anlagen wie Pisac, Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo oder Sacsayhuamán, besitzt aber auch großartige Beispiele spanischer Kolonialkunst: die Kathedrale, die Jesuitenkirche La Merced, die Kirchen Santo Domingo - an der Stelle des alten Inka-Sonnenheiligtums errichtet - und Belen de los Reyes. Beim Wiederaufbau nach dem Erdbeben von 1950 versuchte man den Kirchen ihr ursprüngliches Gesicht von vor 1650 wiederzugeben. - 1969

The legends are only available in German or Spanish
Mit einer Meereshöhe zwischen 3630 und 3770 Metern ist La Paz die höchste Hauptstadt der Welt. Sie liegt in einem Kessel am Rande des Altiplano, der die Stadt vor den Winden der Hochebene abschirmt; die besseren Viertel liegen denn auch möglichst tief im Tal. Ursprünglich eine Aimara-Siedlung, wurde der Ort von den Inka ausgebaut und 1535 von den Spaniern eingenommen. In La Paz leben mit 800 000 Einwohnern etwa 14 Prozent der Landesbevölkerung, und im Großraum der Hauptstadt konzentrieren sich 60 Prozent der Industrieproduktion Boliviens. - 1976

In the Belén district of Iquitos, families with many children are not rare. - 1969

In the centre of Lima, the Avenida Nicolás de Piérola, from Plaza Dos de Mayo towards Plaza San Martín (Hasselblad with telephoto lens 500) - 1969

In the Plaza de Armas of Lima a shoeshine boy does his job. - 1969

These women sell their fish at a market in the Rimac district of Lima. The pelicans are waiting to get a bite of it. - 1969

The Calle Florida is an elegant shopping street in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. Sections of it have been a pedestrian zone since 1913. - 1973

The Casa Rosada is the palace of the President of Argentina. It is located in the capital Buenos Aires on the east side of the Plaza de Mayo in the Montserrat district. - 1973

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina. With a population of around 15 million, it is the largest city in South America. It stretches across the entire back part of the Río de La Plata estuary and is made up of a number of neighbourhoods, each with its own special face. In the peripheral zones, there are gardens full of colourful flowers. In the heart of the capital, large parks are somewhat reminiscent of those of London, which may have been their models. In these magnificent parks, many citizens spend their Sundays and holidays. The centre, where the skyscrapers stand, is teeming with life. This is the seat of trading houses, banks, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, nightclubs and cabarets. You can also see magnificent avenues in this district. The "Avenida 9 de Julio" is considered by Argentines to be the widest in the world. - 1973

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina. With a population of around twelve million, it is the largest city in South America. It stretches across the entire back part of the Río de La Plata estuary and is made up of a number of neighbourhoods, each with its own special face. In the peripheral zones, there are gardens full of colourful flowers. In the heart of the capital, large parks are somewhat reminiscent of those of London, which may have been their models. In these magnificent parks, many citizens spend their Sundays and holidays. The centre, where the skyscrapers stand, is teeming with life. This is the seat of trading houses, banks, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, nightclubs and cabarets. You can also see magnificent avenues in this district. The "Avenida 9 de Julio" is considered by Argentines to be the widest in the world. - View of Buenos Aires from the Olivetti Tower. - 1973

The Avenida de Mayo is a large avenue in the Montserrat district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Planned as a majestic boulevard based on the Parisian model and opened on July 9, 1894 after heated arguments, the Avenida de Mayo is now a symbol of Argentine-Spanish relations and reflects the social problems of Buenos Aires. The avenue, lined mainly with maple-leaved plane trees, connects the historic Plaza de Mayo with the Plaza del Congreso (picture) and halfway crosses the 16-lane main artery Avenida 9 de Julio. - 1973

The city of Salta was founded by the Spanish in 1582. It lies at an altitude of 1187 m above sea level. The Church of San Francisco shows Spanish colonial style. - 1973

Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras and is the largest city in the country. It is located in the southern part of the country in a high basin on the banks of the Río Choluteca river at around 940 metres above sea level. The river water is used for washing clothes. - 1977

The capital of El Salvador at dusk. The city lies on a gentle slope at the foot of a volcano. It is constantly growing and currently has 600,000 inhabitants. This increase in population is due not only to a demographic explosion recorded elsewhere in the continent, but also to the migration of landless peasants to the city. These population movements generally take place in two stages. First, the natives settle in a provincial city. Then they move to the capital of the nation, which exerts an irresistible attraction on them. They are often called by relatives or friends and share their lives with them for a time. Then they become independent, but only if they have found work, which is unfortunately not always the case. Thus, vast shanty towns are created on the outskirts of the towns, forming a veritable belt of misery. - 1977

Aerial view of Quezaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. To the left of the centre of the picture you can see the cathedral. - 1977

La Antigua lies at the foot of the Agua volcano. Of Guatemala's first capital, known in history as Ciudad Vieja, only very few remains remain today. The city was destroyed by earthquakes and floods as early as 1541. The Spaniards were forced to build a second capital, called La Antigua, which soon became a brilliant centre of intellectual and religious life in the subcontinent. However, the volcanic nature of the region would once again cause destruction on a massive scale. In 1773, following very strong tremors that had already occurred in the first half of the 18th century, La Antigua suffered desolation and death, forcing the Spaniards to build a new capital. Unfortunately, the latter, like the two previous ones, was not to be spared. The violent earthquake of 4 February 1976 caused the death of twenty-three thousand people. - 1977

Guatemala City, the current capital of the country, lies at an altitude of 1,500 metres on a vast plateau surrounded by hills shaped by erosion. Six hundred thousand people live there. This number is constantly growing due to the constant migration of landless peasants attracted by the bright lights of the city and guided by the hope of finding an occupation that would allow them to meet their daily needs. The owners of the houses in the residential areas maintain gardens where a multitude of tropical plants and flowers grow. - 1977

Guatemala's capital, like other Central American cities, offers the traveller many contrasts. The poorest neighbourhoods stand next to modern buildings or churches, most of which date back to the colonial era. In the old quarters, traffic is heavy and sometimes problematic due to the narrowness of the streets. Bus lines are used by the inhabitants to get to any part of the city. Other lines provide connections to the most remote parts of the country. - 1977

Street scene from the city of Belize. The majority of the inhabitants of Belize are coloured, Mayan, Mestizo, Antillean, Mulatto, Syrian, Lebanese and Chinese. All these people speak a language with Spanish, English and French elements. British Honduras or Belize is a small country that is hardly spoken of, at least not in Europe. - 1978

A canal runs through the town of Belize. It is lined with houses of characteristic architecture. The corrugated iron roofs are a fairly effective protection against your inclement climate, marked by abundant rainfall. In British Honduras, rainfall reaches at least three metres per year. At times, your significant drop in atmospheric pressure heralds the appearance of a cyclone that has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and then moves towards your islands in the West Indies, still affecting your northern regions of Central America. - 1978

Domino players in Belize City. Games are an important part of the daily life of people in the tropics, so much so that they sometimes take precedence over other more lucrative activities. However, it should be taken into account that life in these latitudes is already difficult because of the heat and humidity. In any case, the natives could not maintain a work rhythm similar to that of the inhabitants of temperate regions. - 1978

View of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. Nouakchott's convenient location on the Atlantic Ocean in the south of the country was chosen in 1958 to build a capital for the newly independent country on the site of a village with 500 inhabitants at the end of the French colonial period. Due to the rural exodus caused by economic crises and droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, it has since grown, largely unplanned, to over one million inhabitants. A large proportion of those who have moved in live in sprawling neighbourhoods in cheap accommodation with inadequate infrastructure in all areas. - Mauritania - 1968

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