Geography

Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the Caribbean Sea, with the geographic coordinates 21°3'N, 80°00'W. Cuba is west of the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Gulf of Mexico, south of the Straits of Florida, northwest of the Windward Passage, and northeast of the Yucatan Channel. Cuba is 140 km from the Bahamas, 145 km from Florida, 210 km from Mexico, and 146 km from Jamaica.

Cuba is the principal island, which is surrounded by four main groups of islands. These are the Colorados, the Camagüey, the Jardines de la Reina and the Canarreos.

The main island (Cuba proper) makes up most of the land area (105,006 sq km or 40,543 square miles) and is the 17th-largest island in the world by land area. The island is 1,199 km (745 miles) long and 200 km (124 mile) across its widest points and 35 km (22 miles) across its narrowest points. The largest island outside the main island is the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in the southwest, with an area of 3,056 sq km (1,180 square miles).

Cuba has a total land area of 110,860 sq km. It has 3,735 km of coastline and 29 km of land borders - all with the United States territory at Guantánamo Bay, where the US Navy's Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located.

The terrain of the main island is mostly flat to rolling plains, with rugged hills and mountains in the southeast. The lowest point is the Caribbean Sea at 0 m (sea level) and the highest point is Pico Turquino at 2,005 m (located in the southeastern Sierra Maestra mountain range).

Cuba makes maritime claims that include a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 km) and an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km).

Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Better known smaller towns include Baracoa which was the first Spanish settlement on Cuba, Trinidad, a UNESCO world heritage site, and Bayamo.

Natural resources include cobalt, nickel, iron ore, copper, manganese, salt, timber, silica, and petroleum. At one time the whole island was covered with forest and there are still many cedar, rosewood, mahogany and other valuable trees. Large areas were cleared in order to grow more sugar cane and so few trees were left that timber had to be imported.