El Alto and the nearby Garita de Lima, the neighborhood that leads to el Alto, are examples of the zone of In-Situ Accretion and Peripheral Squatter Settlements. El Alto was previously a shantytown suburb, comprised of many closely-packed barrios, but now it has spread towards the city, as the In Situ Accretion Zone has expanded out, connecting the two urban areas into one great city. El Alto was constituted in 1986 as a part of the La Paz urban region. 

El Alto has approximately 770,000 citizens. The overwhelming majority of them work in La Paz, which has led to the nickname "sleeping city" that El Alto has acquired.

The increasing amounts of poor migrants to La Paz have been forced to head for the hills and put together a house as best they can, usually using adobe with corrugated roofing. Continued migration from the countryside can be attributed to a long history of economic problems and corrupt governments as well as the illusion that life in the city will be easier. This has resulted in the very chaotic appearance of the city, sprawled out to maximum area of the valley, with a large zone of In Situ Accretion and extensive peripheral squatter settlements expanding in a horseshoe around the city.

 

In 1952 Bolivia experienced an agrarian reform which caused many farmers of the Altiplano to move into the cities. As a logical consequence, many new barrios were formed, unable to provide the same installed hygienic standard of central La Paz.  These make up the periphery squatter settlements of El Alto.

The residential areas of El Alto are intermixed with informal commercial spaces, as markets and street-vendors line the streets.