Background: the Sierra Maestra and the limestone terraces of Cuba's Granma coast

Background

Cuba presented itself at the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly as a small island state facing outside pressure, and its physical geography is part of that identity. One of its World Heritage properties, Desembarco del Granma National Park, sits at the western end of the Sierra Maestra at Cabo Cruz, in the province of Granma. The park is listed under criteria seven and eight, which cover natural beauty and earth history rather than wildlife. Its uplifted limestone marine terraces run from about 180 metres below sea level to about 360 metres above it. UNESCO describes this as the largest and best preserved coastal limestone terrace system in the world. The nearly untouched coastal cliffs there face the western Atlantic. The park takes its name from the vessel Granma, whose 1956 landing after a voyage from Mexico began a chain of events that changed the country, and the province carries the same name.