Lima · PE

Magic Water Circuit of the Reserve Park

On the edge of downtown Lima, where Avenida Arequipa meets the Paseo de la República, the Magic Water Circuit (Circuito Mágico del Agua) turns a historic park into a nightly spectacle of dancing fountains, colour and laser light. Inaugurated on 26 July 2007 inside the Parque de la Reserva, it is a linked sequence of thirteen cybernetic fountains that mix water, music, sound and projection, and it earned a Guinness World Record as the largest fountain complex in a public park. It is the closest thing Lima has to a free-open-air show, and one of the city's most beloved places for an evening stroll. What makes the circuit special is the way it layers technology over a park with real historical bones. The Parque de la Reserva was inaugurated in 1929 as a tribute to the citizen 'Reserve' battalions who fought in the War of the Pacific, and its art-deco and indigenista layout—designed by French architect Claude Sahut and decorated with sculptures by Peruvian artists—is now a designated Urban Monumental Environment and National Heritage. Walking from fountain to fountain means moving through both a feat of hydraulic engineering and a monument to Lima's memory.