Cuba: Physical Geography

Cuba is the largest and westernmost island of the Greater Antilles, lying in the Caribbean Sea roughly 150 kilometers south of Key West, Florida. The main island stretches about 1,250 kilometers from east to west but narrows to as little as 31 kilometers across, giving the country its distinctive elongated shape. Including the Isle of Youth and thousands of smaller islands and cays grouped into four surrounding archipelagos, Cuba's total territory covers about 110,860 square kilometers, making it the largest country in the Caribbean.

Much of Cuba's terrain consists of flat to gently rolling plains well suited to agriculture, but rugged hills and mountains rise in the southeast, center, and northwest. The Sierra Maestra range along the southeastern coast holds the country's highest point, Pico Turquino, at 1,974 meters, while the Escambray Mountains occupy the center of the island and the Sierra del Rosario rises in the northwest, west of Havana.

Cuba's coastline extends roughly 3,700 kilometers and includes white-sand beaches, mangrove forests, and the Zapata Swamp, the Caribbean's largest wetland. The low-lying island has no land border apart from a short stretch around the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, and its longest river, the Cauto, flows through the eastern lowlands. Lying within the hurricane belt, Cuba is affected by Atlantic storms from August through November and periodically experiences drought.