The tinajones
Huge clay jars.
No machine-readable author provided. Danleo~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). — CC BY 2.5 · Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY-SA 4.0
Camagüey is Cuba's third-largest city, with more than 333,000 residents, and its old centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is known for twisting streets that feel like a maze and for its great clay jars, called tinajones. It is among the country's less tourist-crowded cities, with ordinary daily life all around. The Spanish founded it in 1514 as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe on the north coast, then moved it inland in 1528 to the site of a Taíno village named Camagüey. It was one of the seven original settlements in Cuba. After Henry Morgan burned it in the 17th century, it was redesigned as a maze so attackers would find it hard to move around, as the common account goes. From above you see a sea of red roofs broken by towers. Below are painted fronts, among them a red building with yellow zigzag decoration and a pale blue one with white lines. Huge clay jars sit in the squares, used to catch rainwater and keep it cool. At the centre is the monument to Ignacio Agramonte by the sculptor Salvatore Buemi, unveiled in 1912, on horseback among palm trees. It is about 218 km from Trinidad in a straight line. People get around by bicycle taxi, so agree a price first. Take a map, as getting lost in the lanes is likely. The UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to Cuba because of fuel, power and water shortages, so read the current advice before you plan.
Huge clay jars.
A maze on purpose.
Red with towers.
Central Camagüey, Cuba
The common account says they were planned to confuse attackers after Henry Morgan's raid.
A large clay jar that catches rainwater and keeps it cool, and the symbol of the city.