If you’re prone to altitude sickness, you might want to think twice before heading to the administrative capital of Bolivia.

That’s because La Paz not only makes up half of Bolivia’s highest metropolis (when combined with its suburb El Alto, the neighboring city situated just the other side of a vast canyon), but it is also the highest capital city in the world.

While Sucre is Bolivia’s constitutional capital, all the administrative duties take place in the La Paz-El Alto metropolitan area, which averages 3,896 meters above sea level.

That’s a height of over four and a half Burj Khalifas stacked on top of one another!

So why is La Paz so high up?

Well, Bolivia’s administrative capital is nestled in a valley amongst the Andes.

At over twelve thousand feet above sea level, La Paz was founded under Spanish colonial rule in 1548, adopting an Inca site. It was intended to connect up beneficial trading routes which, due to the Bolivian terrain, meant situating it at this somewhat unconventional location.

With a name like La Paz (meaning ‘the peace’) and its remote location, you might imagine La Paz to have had a calm, uninterrupted history. But through the centuries, the city has been the site of multiple wars, sieges, rebellions and other controversies, with its past as colorful as its modern day markets.

Since altitude sickness can affect humans due to the lower oxygen levels, it’s not uncommon for tourists to struggle, especially if their body doesn’t have time to gradually acclimatise.

This can affect even the fittest of visitors, with frequent controversies resulting in soccer players travelling to Bolivia for matches, where home players are said to have a significant advantage since their bodies are acclimatised to the reduced oxygen levels. As a result, it’s not uncommon to see soccer players on the away team using oxygen masks during Bolivian fixtures.

With a population of more than two million people, La Paz-El Alto certainly packs a punch with visitors in other ways too; given its remote location, the city has a vibrant culture to go alongside its magnificent views.

And thanks to the world’s largest urban cable car system, you don’t even have to trek all that way to reach it.

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