Iquique

Seaport and capital of Tarapacá region, northern Chile, 1,853 km/1,150 mi north of Santiago, on the edge of the Atacama Desert; population (2002) 164,400. Industries include fishing, fish processing, and sugar and oil refining. The port exports more fishmeal than any other in the world. Nitrates are exported from its desert region. Iquique was founded in the 16th century; it was originally a poor shanty village until the 19th-century mining boom. Formerly part of Peru, it was ceded to Chile by treaty in 1883 following the Pacific War.

The entire Tarapacá region is a duty-free zone (locally known as zofri) and this has added to the economic prosperity of the region, resulting in the lowest unemployment rate in the country.