Province
located to the eastern end of
the central region of Cuba. It has an extension of 15 584,72
sq km (6017 sq mi) and an estimated population of 771 931
inhabitants (1996). The province ranks first in extension
and sixth in population.
In this province, plains predominate, but not all the land
is plain in the Camagüey territory. The Sierra de Cubitas
is notable because of its caves, considered the biggest and
most beautiful of the island. One of them, located in the
Tuabaquey hill (highest elevation of the province) and having
an additional historical and cultural value, is preserved
as testimony of a past runaway slave refuge.
From the high and abrupt slopes, with carsic characteristics
like coastal rocks, one can see the impressively deep creeks.
River Máximo, after passing
through the mountains between the Tuabaquey and Santa Cruz
heights, forms to the north beautiful natural water holes
displaying attractive white marbles.
The existence of igneous and metamorphic rocks near the city
of Camagüey has propitiated the formation of chromite,
a strategic mineral, in such quantities that it could become
the most important Cuban ore deposit.
Camagüey's coralline northern coast allows to work out,
lightly over the sea level, the hundreds of keys and islets
of the Jardines del Rey archipelago. The islet known as Cayo
Romano displays hills of relative importance like La Silla,
which presence means that the origin of the islet was not
merely the growing of the coral reef, but geological folds
of the limestone crust of the region.
To the north of the Esmeralda municipality there have been
discoveries of ammonite fossils from the Mesozoic Age.
Municipality
01 Carlos Manuel de Cespedes
02 Esmeralda
03 Sierra de Cubitas
04 Minas
05 Nuevitas
06 Guáimaro
07 Sibanicú
08 Camagüey
09 Florida
10 Vertientes
11 Jimaguayú
12 Najasa
13 Santa Cruz del Sur