The Caribbean

St. Mary’s Biosphere Reserve, located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles on the island of St. Kitts, is one of the first biosphere reserves of the Caribbean island countries and an important site in terms of biological diversity, comprising cloud forests, mangroves and coral reefs.

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is an outstanding, well-preserved example of 17th- and 18th-century military architecture in a Caribbean context. Designed by the British and built by African slave labor, the fortress is testimony to European colonial expansion.

This massive series of fortifications on a rocky promontory was built to protect the important port of Santiago de Cuba. This intricate complex of forts, magazines, bastions and batteries is the most complete, best-preserved example of Spanish-American military architecture, based on Italian and Renaissance design principles.

Baconao Biosphere Reserve is situated in southeastern Cuba, between Santiago de Cuba and the province of Guantanamo, and includes three well-defined biogeographic zones. The area is a large park region which contains a variety of attractions in addition to wildlife refuges and coffee plantations.

The Bonaire National Marine Park is the oldest marine reserve in the world. It includes the waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire's reef-lined coasts. In 1999 the underwater park received the status of National Park of the Netherlands Antilles.

After Christopher Columbus's arrival on the island in 1492, Santo Domingo became the site of the first cathedral, hospital, customs house and university in the Americas. This colonial town, founded in 1498, was laid out on a grid pattern that became the model for almost all town planners in the New World.

Banwari Trace, an Archaic pre-ceramic site in southwestern Trinidad, is the oldest archaeological site in the Caribbean and the deposit is found on the southern edge of the Oropuche Lagoon. In 1969, the Trinidad and Tobago Historical Society discovered the remains of a human skeleton at the site.

Cuba's Valle de Viñales is encircled by mountains and its landscape is interspersed with dramatic rocky outcrops. The quality of this cultural landscape is enhanced by the vernacular architecture of its farms and villages, illustrating the cultural development of the islands of the Caribbean and of Cuba.

The Spanish system of fortifications in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the oldest European construction in the United States and one of the oldest in the New World. These fortifications guarded the entrance to San Juan Bay, helped the Spanish maintain sovereignty over Puerto Rico, and protected Spanish commerce in the Caribbean basin.