The area of the old province of Havana City is located in the western zone of the Republic of Cuba between latitudes 2 ° 58 ‘, 23 ° 10’ north latitude and 82 ° 30 ‘, 82 ° 06’ of west longitude. It was the smallest of the Cuban provinces, although it was the most populated, as well as having the highest density per square kilometer in the entire country.

It is connected to the north with the Strait of Florida, to the east and part of the south with the province of Artemisa and to the southwest and west with the province of Mayabeque.

Located in the area of the Havana-Matanzas Plain, its entire northern coastline is occupied by coasts, where the bay of Havana is located, to the east are its beaches. Its hydrography is represented by the Almendares, Martín Pérez, Quibú rivers, among others, and the Bacuranao and Rebel Army reservoirs.

Undeveloped soils predominate, they are reddish-brown fersialitic and red ferralitic, in some coastal sectors there are manifestations of bare karst.

In the same historical area of the city, within the territories of the municipalities of Centro Habana, Habana Vieja, Regla, Guanabacoa and Habana del Este is located the Bay of Havana, one of the most important ports in the Caribbean area and Once a center for the organization of goods that were sent to colonial Spain from the Caribbean colonies.

Along its entire northern coastline there are beaches of great beauty, standing out the Playas del Este located in the towns of Guanabo, Bacuranao and Santa María del Mar in the municipality of Habana del Este. In the south it has some limestone elevations in areas such as Guanabacoa, San Miguel del Padrón, Arroyo Naranjo and Boyeros.

Climate

According to bridgat.com, the climate of the city is tropical as in the rest of the island. However, it receives a greater continental influence in winter, due to its proximity to the southern coast of the United States, which makes temperatures cooler in these months, the minimum temperature recorded is 2.0ºC in the town of Santiago de las Vegas. in the municipality of Boyeros, although during the winter season 2010 – 2011, lower values were recorded at 1.4 ° C.

In addition, there is a great oceanic influence on the climate, due to the fact that the Gulf Stream passes off the coast of western Cuba. Rainfall is abundant in October and September and quite scarce in April and March. The hurricanes that hit the island almost always do not directly impact the city, causing the damage to be minor in most cases.

Due to all these climatic benefits, the city is visited throughout the year. In summer and at the end of the year it is filled with visitors from other provinces of the country who come to spend the holidays with their families in the city and do shopping, in winter and spring it is invaded by foreign tourists who stay in the luxurious hotels and sunbathe. on the beaches, in addition to visiting museums and touring the city.

As in Spain, by tradition, naps are taken in summer, where the temperature becomes extremely hot on some days and in suburban areas especially, because in the center the bustle is constant and the beaches and the boardwalk are full of people.

There are many traditions depending on the season of the year, for example it is “good luck” to bathe in the first downpour of the month of May, and pregnant women cannot leave the room if there is an eclipse.

Relief

The relief of the city is mostly flat, although some elevations predominate, which make up the so-called Alturas de La Habana Matanzas system, while its coasts are generally steep. These begin in the rock of Morro and the Loma de La Cabaña, and continue to the Sierra Cojímar (hills of Urría and San Pedro, where the urban centers of Cojímar and Alamar are located), from there they advance to the Sierra de Bacuranao and the Sierra de Sibarimar to conclude in Peñas Altas.

To the south, the province borders the group of the Bejucal-Madruga-Coliseo Heights (Loma del Cacahual and the so-called Tits of Managua, the latter with 220 meters above sea level). There are other isolated elevations in the urbanized area of the province that reach some height, such as the various city points: the Cerro de Peña Pobre or the Loma del Ángel and Atarés (Old Havana), the Kolhy district (in the municipality Beach), the Heights of Vedado (Nuevo Vedado), the Loma de los Catalanes, the Aróstegui or del Príncipe, the Pirotecnia or University Hill, the Tanganana hill and the Carmelo hill, in Plaza de la Revolución, the Loma del Cerro, Loma del Burro, Loma de Chaple (in the municipality of Diez de Octubre), El Calvario (Arroyo Naranjo), Loma de los Zapotes, in Jacomino (San Miguel del Padrón), Colina Lenin or Loma del Fortín and Loma de Regla.

Inserted between the orographic systems are fertile intramontane valleys, like the natural landscape that we can observe from the plain east of Guanabacoa and south of Habana del Este.

Hydrography

The province is crossed by several rivers, although the Almendares is the largest, with 49.8 kilometers in length and 402 square kilometers in its basin called Almendares-Vento. It is born in the municipality of San José de las Lajas, in the neighboring province of Mayabeque, and crosses eight territories of the province: Cotorro, Arroyo Naranjo, Diez de Octubre, Boyeros, Cerro, Marianao, Playa and Plaza de la Revolución Municipality.

They are followed in importance by Quibú, Santa Ana, Jaimanitas, Cojímar, Bacuranao, Tarará, Boca Ciega or Itabo, Guanabo, Peñas Altas, Mordazo, Santoyo, Orengo, and others of lesser flow; as well as several streams and lagoons. There are also several reservoirs such as: the Rebelde Army Reservoir (with a capacity for 52 million cubic meters), the La Coca dam (11.8 million), La Zarza (17.4 million), Bacuranao (14.6), and other minor ones like Paso Sequito.

The bay of Havana is a typical bag bay, it has an entrance channel and four inlets towards its interior: Atarés, Marimelena, Guasabacoa and Triscornia. Both east of the bay and west of the Almendares River, the province has abundant and beautiful beaches that constitute its greatest tourist attraction.