Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero Argentina

Spanish colonists, after a series of exploratory expeditions from the Pacific coast of Chile across the Andes into present Argentina starting in 1543, establish the city of Santiagio del Estero in 1553 in what is at this time forested area. (The timber industries of British capital will exhaust these forests during the nineteenth century.)

Today, Santiago del Estero and its region are home to about one hundred thousand speakers of the local variety of Quechua, making this the southernmost outpost of the language of the Incas.

The oldest city in Argentina that still exists as such, it is the twelfth largest city in the country.