Santiago Province (Santiago de los Caballeros)
It is home to an intellectual, educational, and cultural center. It is also a major industrial center with rum, textile, cigarette and cigar industries based there. Shoe manufacturing, leather goods, and furniture making are important parts of the province's economic life. Santiago also has major Free Zone centers with four important industrial free zones; it also has an important cement factory. Santiago is home to one of the largest medical centers in the country, Clínica Unión Médica, which serves all 14 provinces of El Cibao.
Also within striking distance there are a good number of pleasant towns, many of which are quite prosperous. It is surrounded by tall mountains that have for years protected it from hurricanes and allows for dense tropical forests to develop on the slopes of such mountains, which are among the highest in the region.
Santiago province is located in a valley within the Northern Cordillera that crosses the entire north of the country and also is the Diego de Ocampo peak of 1,249 meters above sea level. To the west are numerous hills that separate the Western Valley of the Cibao with the Valley of the Vega Real. The highest mountains in the province are La Pelona, La Rusilla that it shares with La Vega, and Pico Duarte that it shares with the province of San Juan, the latter is the tallest mountain in the Caribbean region.
In the province is the José Armando Bermúdez National Park, one of the largest in the country and the most important forest reserve on the island. The main river that crosses Santiago is the Yaque del Norte, which borders the entire southern part of the province. In addition, there are other rivers of great importance that run through the province such as the Bao, Jagua, Inoa, Ámina and Licey rivers.
Map - Santiago Province (Santiago de los Caballeros)
Map
Country - Dominican_Republic
Flag of the Dominican Republic |
The native Taíno people had inhabited Hispaniola before the arrival of Europeans, dividing it into five chiefdoms. They had constructed an advanced farming and hunting society, and were in the process of becoming an organized civilization. The Taínos also inhabited Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. The Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus explored and claimed the island for Castile, landing there on his first voyage in 1492. The colony of Santo Domingo became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas and the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World. It would also become the site to introduce importations of enslaved Africans to the Americas. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which became the independent state of Haiti in 1804.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
DOP | Dominican peso | $ | 2 |
ISO | Language |
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ES | Spanish language |