According to a2zdirectory, Trinidad is one of the most beautiful cities in Cuba. The city, founded in 1514, owed its rise to the sugar industry. The historic cityscape with its magnificent buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries is reminiscent of the heyday of Trinidad. The sugar cane plantations and the historic sugar mills in the neighboring Valle de los Ingenios are also part of the world heritage.
Trinidad City and Sugar Mills: Facts
| Official title: | City of Trinidad and sugar factories in the Valle de los Ingenios |
| Cultural monument: | Spanish colonial architecture such as the Palacio Brunet, the Casa Ortiz, the Casa Malibrán, as well as the Iglesia Santísima Trinidad and the Iglesia de la Popa |
| Continent: | America |
| Country: | Cuba, Sancti Spíritus |
| Location: | Trinidad, northwest of it Valle de los Ingenios, southeast of Havana |
| Appointment: | 1988 |
| Meaning: | a bridgehead for the Conquista and testimony to the wealth of the sugar barons of the 18th and 19th centuries. Century |
Trinidad City and Sugar Mills: History
| 1514 | Foundation of the city |
| 1519 | Departure of the conquistadors under Hernán Cortés to Mexico |
| 1740 | Construction of the Iglesia de la Popa |
| 1779-1827 | Quadrupling the population |
| 1801 | Visit of the natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt |
| 1820 | Construction of the Torre de Iznaga |
| around 1830 | Construction of the sugar factories in the Valle de los Ingenios |
| 1846 | Boom with the production of 7,700 tons of sugar per year |
White and black gold flotsam
“The mountains were once winged like large birds. They flew around and settled where they pleased. But since they occasionally sat close together, the earth often swayed to and fro. So Indra cut off their wings and made the earth firm. But the wings turned into clouds, which is why they always move towards the mountains «, knows a legend from the 6th century about the formation of the Himalayas. This already reveals divine origin in its name, as it is named after Himavat, the father of the deities Parvati and Ganga.
So it is no coincidence that India has named Nanda Devi, the highest mountain lying entirely on the country’s territory at 7,817 meters, as a “sanctuary” and not just a national park. The Nanda Devi government takes the word »nature conservation« very literally, since 1983 it has strictly refused access to one of the most fascinating mountain paradises in the world. Does she fear the wrath of the gods, or are strategic considerations – the border with Tibet close enough to touch – in the foreground?
The landscape is unparalleled: two semicircular, nested rock formations form the outer frame and shield the “sanctuary” from the outside world. In the inner circle, the Nanda Devi rises majestically from the glacier at its feet. A 7000 meter high ridge connects it to its second peak, the 7434 meter high Nanda Devi Ost. This forms – like a diadem of snow and ice with a good dozen six thousand meter peaks – the end of the outer rock barrier.
“The Nanda Devi sanctuary is a god-given wilderness,” wrote Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand’s first to climb Mount Everest, about this natural paradise – by no means a new insight for the residents. Because since time immemorial this inaccessible region of the Himalayas has been sacred ground, the dwelling place of the gods. Nanda Devi embodies the goddess Nanda, behind whom Parvati hides, the companion of Shiva, who in turn owns his “local mountain” with the Trisul, the “trident”. Above all, however, Gahrwal is the headwaters of the Ganges, the sacred river with which the life and religion of India have been fatefully linked for millennia. Lord Shiva dampened the masses of water that fell from heaven, implored by holy Bhagiratha, with the braid of his hair and led them in several source rivers into the lowlands.
The locals avoided the Nanda Devi as an enchanted world. No one would ever have approached the roaring Rishi Ganga, where the seven Rishi, the wise men of the Himalayas and ancestors of the people, had their home. This is how the beauty of the high mountains first opened up to European mountaineers. Tom Longstaff came to the region at the end of the 19th century, but it wasn’t until 1936 that Eric Shipton and Bill Tillman, pioneers of mountaineering in the Himalayas, penetrated today’s nature reserve. However, the residents of the area are still convinced that this expedition drew the wrath of the gods, as the village of Tharali was devastated by floods on the day of the summit victory.
Every twelve years, thousands of believers set out on the arduous journey to the 4778 meter high Rupkundsee lake on the southern flank of the Nanda Devi massif and at the foot of the Trisul. In the procession in honor of the goddess Nanda, a golden idol is carried, which otherwise has its place in the temple of Nauti. The glacier lake is surrounded by secrets, as numerous skeletons of people and horses were found in it, which died here about 200 years ago. Was it soldiers from an Indian army on their way to Tibet or pilgrims who were caught by the snow storm? And wouldn’t this glacier basin also be a suitable place to live for the legendary Yeti, the snowman of the Himalayas?
In 2005 the World Natural Heritage was expanded to include the Valley of Flowers, one of the most famous national parks in India, which was established in 1982. It is located in the western high Himalayas at an altitude of around 3600 m and is best known for its meadows with endemic alpine flowers and its extraordinary beauty. This area is home to rare and endangered animals including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, brown bear, and blue sheep. The gentle landscape, which is particularly beautiful in summer, complements the rugged mountain wilderness of the Nanda Devi National Park. 300 species of wildflowers alone adorn the meadows of the valley, which changes its color about every three weeks in summer when new types of flowers alternate with those that have faded.
