Santiago de Cuba, << `sahn` tee AH goh day KOO bah, >> is one of the largest cities in Cuba. The municipality of Santiago de Cuba has a population of 506,037. A municipality may include rural areas as well as the urban center. Santiago de Cuba lies at the foot of the Sierra Maestra mountain range on Cuba’s southeast coast. The city serves as the center of the country’s mining industry and is a shipping center for iron, manganese, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Morro Castle, one of its landmarks, was built to defend its harbor from British and French pirates. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War (also called the Spanish-Cuban-American War or the War of 1898), a United States fleet destroyed most of the Spanish fleet near Santiago Harbor. In 1953, the city became the birthplace of the Cuban Revolution when Fidel Castro led an attack on an army barracks there.
