Tumbes is one of the twenty-four departments that, together with the Constitutional Province of Callao, form the Republic of Peru. Its capital is the homonymous city Tumbes. It is located in the extreme northwest of the country, bounded on the west and north by the Gulf of Guayaquil, on the east by Ecuador, and on the south by Piura. With 4669.20 km² it is the least extensive department and with 42.9 inhabitants / km² it is the fifth most densely populated, behind Lima, Lambayeque, La Libertad and Piura. It was founded on November 25,1942.
The region comprises the narrow coastal plain in the west and the Amotape hills in the north, dominated by the equatorial dry forest, and the mangroves of the Gulf of Guayaquil and tropical forests of the north. Because of its tropical climate and variety of environments, it has tourist attractions such as the beaches of Punta Sal, Puerto Pizarro and Zorritos, as well as the protected areas of the Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary, the Cerros de Amotape National Park and the Tumbes National Reserve that make up the Amotapes-Mangroves Northwest Biosphere Reserve.