What is the highest mountain in Cuba?

Pico Turquino, at 1,974 metres, in the Sierra Maestra range in south-eastern Cuba (Granma/Santiago de Cuba provinces).

What are the main mountain ranges in Cuba?

Three: the Sierra Maestra in the south-east (highest and longest), the Sierra del Escambray in the centre, and the Cordillera de Guaniguanico in the west (Sierra del Rosario and the Sierra de los Órganos, home to the Viñales mogotes).

Does Cuba have volcanoes?

No. Cuba has no active volcanoes because it does not lie on a volcanic arc. It does experience earthquakes along the Oriente fault near Santiago de Cuba in the south-east.

What is the longest river in Cuba?

The Río Cauto, about 370 kilometres long, flowing across the Cauto plain in eastern Cuba.

About 109,884 square kilometres, including the main island, the Isla de la Juventud, and roughly 4,195 cays and islets — the largest island in the Caribbean.

Is Cuba mountainous or flat?

Mostly flat. Around two-thirds of the island is rolling plain and basin; mountains occupy roughly a quarter, concentrated in three separate regions.

Physical geography

The Geography of Cuba

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean — an archipelago of one long main island, the smaller Isla de la Juventud, and roughly 4,195 cays and islets, covering about 109,884 square kilometres at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico.

For all its length — more than 1,200 kilometres from Cape San Antonio in the west to Point Maisí in the east — Cuba is mostly low and gentle. Around two-thirds of the island is rolling plain and fertile basin; its mountains rise in three distinct regions, one in the west, one in the centre, and the highest in the south-east. This page maps that relief: the ranges, the rivers, the coastline and cays, the great southern wetland, and the geology that explains why an island this size has no active volcanoes.

Satellite view of Cuba showing its mountains, plains and surrounding cays. Open the interactive map

Cuba at a glance

Total area: ~109,884 km² (main island + Isla de la Juventud + ~4,195 cays)
Highest point: Pico Turquino — 1,974 m (Sierra Maestra)
Longest river: Río Cauto — ~370 km (eastern Cuba)
Largest bay: Bahía de Nipe (Holguín)
Largest wetland: Ciénaga de Zapata — the Caribbean's largest
Active volcanoes: None — Cuba is not on a volcanic arc

Relief: a mostly low island

The defining fact of Cuban relief is how much of it is flat. Broad plains and gently rolling country make up roughly two-thirds of the island, which is why sugar cane, tobacco, and cattle have shaped its landscape and economy for centuries. Elevation is the exception, not the rule: the mountains occupy perhaps a quarter of the territory, clustered in three separate systems rather than a single spine.

That pattern — long plains punctuated by isolated ranges — is what a relief map of Cuba shows at a glance. The lowlands include the Havana–Matanzas plains in the north-west and the wide Cauto basin in the east, the island's largest.

The mountains of Cuba

Cuba has three principal mountain regions. In the far south-east rises the Sierra Maestra, the longest and highest range, running along the coast from near Cabo Cruz toward Santiago de Cuba. It holds the island's summit, Pico Turquino, at 1,974 metres — the answer to 'the highest mountain in Cuba'. The range is steep, forested, and historically remote.

In the centre of the island stands the Sierra del Escambray (the Guamuhaya massif), rising behind Trinidad and Cienfuegos to over a thousand metres, cloaked in cloud forest and threaded with waterfalls. In the west, in Pinar del Río, the Cordillera de Guaniguanico splits into the Sierra del Rosario and the Sierra de los Órganos — the latter famous for its mogotes, the sheer-sided limestone towers of the Viñales Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape.

Rivers and drainage

Cuban rivers are generally short and seasonal, draining quickly from the interior to a coast that is never far away. The longest is the Río Cauto in the east, running about 370 kilometres from the Sierra Maestra across the Cauto plain, though it is navigable only in stretches. The Río Toa, in the mountainous far east near Baracoa, is considered the most voluminous, fed by the wettest corner of the country.

Because so much of the island is limestone, a great deal of water moves underground through caves and sinkholes rather than along surface rivers — the same karst process that carved the Viñales mogotes and Cuba's extensive cave systems.

Coastline, bays and cays

Cuba's coastline runs for thousands of kilometres and is fringed by four great archipelagos of cays: the Jardines del Rey (the Sabana–Camagüey group, including Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo) off the north-central coast; the Colorados off the north-west; the Canarreos to the south-west (with Cayo Largo and the Isla de la Juventud); and the Jardines de la Reina, a protected reef wilderness off the south.

The mainland coast is punctuated by distinctive pouch-shaped 'bag' bays with narrow entrances — Havana, Cienfuegos, Santiago and, largest of all, the Bahía de Nipe. These sheltered harbours shaped where Cuba's cities and ports grew.

The Zapata wetland

On the south coast of Matanzas province spreads the Ciénaga de Zapata, the largest wetland in Cuba and in the insular Caribbean — a vast mosaic of swamp forest, mangrove, and flooded savanna that is a biosphere reserve and Ramsar site. It shelters crocodiles, manatees, and hundreds of bird species, and includes the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) on its eastern edge. It is the wildest large landscape on an otherwise cultivated island.

Geology: why Cuba has no volcanoes

A common search is whether Cuba has volcanoes. It does not — there are no active volcanoes on the island, because Cuba does not sit on a volcanic arc or a subduction zone the way the Lesser Antilles do. Its rocks are largely limestone, laid down in shallow seas, along with older folded and faulted formations.

Cuba is not, however, free of earthquakes. The island's southern edge runs close to the boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates — the Oriente (Bartlett–Cayman) fault system — so seismic activity concentrates in the far south-east around Santiago de Cuba, which has been shaken by significant historical quakes. The rest of the island is tectonically quiet.

Explore Cuba's landscape

Where is Cuba?Nature & national parks Provinces of Cuba Beaches & cays Explore the map

Geography of Cuba — FAQ

What is the highest mountain in Cuba?: Pico Turquino, at 1,974 metres, in the Sierra Maestra range in south-eastern Cuba (Granma/Santiago de Cuba provinces).
What are the main mountain ranges in Cuba?: Three: the Sierra Maestra in the south-east (highest and longest), the Sierra del Escambray in the centre, and the Cordillera de Guaniguanico in the west (Sierra del Rosario and the Sierra de los Órganos, home to the Viñales mogotes).
Does Cuba have volcanoes?: No. Cuba has no active volcanoes because it does not lie on a volcanic arc. It does experience earthquakes along the Oriente fault near Santiago de Cuba in the south-east.
What is the longest river in Cuba?: The Río Cauto, about 370 kilometres long, flowing across the Cauto plain in eastern Cuba.
How big is Cuba?: About 109,884 square kilometres, including the main island, the Isla de la Juventud, and roughly 4,195 cays and islets — the largest island in the Caribbean.
Is Cuba mountainous or flat?: Mostly flat. Around two-thirds of the island is rolling plain and basin; mountains occupy roughly a quarter, concentrated in three separate regions.