Cuba extends 1,250 kilometers from Cabo San Antonio in the west to Punta Maisí in the east, making it the largest island in the Caribbean at 109,884 square kilometers. The main island accounts for 104,556 square kilometers of this total, with the Isla de la Juventud (formerly Isle of Pines) adding 2,200 square kilometers and approximately 4,195 smaller cays and islets comprising the remainder. The island sits between the Caribbean Sea to the south, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Straits of Florida separate Cuba from Key West by 145 kilometers at the narrowest point. The Windward Passage, measuring 80 kilometers wide, divides Cuba from Haiti to the southeast. The Yucatán Channel, 217 kilometers across, lies between Cuba's western tip and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. This positioning has shaped Cuba's climate, biodiversity, and historical role as a nexus point for Atlantic hurricane systems and maritime trade routes between the Americas.
The Sierra Maestra dominates southeastern Cuba, running approximately 250 kilometers along the southern coast from Cabo Cruz to Guantánamo Bay. This mountain range contains Pico Turquino, Cuba's highest point at 1,974 meters above sea level, located in the Parque Nacional Pico Turquino. The Sierra Maestra represents a crystalline basement complex of Mesozoic age, primarily composed of metamorphic and igneous rocks including schists, gneisses, and granites. These mountains rise steeply from the Caribbean coast, with some peaks reaching within 15 kilometers of the shoreline, creating dramatic elevation changes from sea level to summit. The range receives substantial orographic precipitation, with windward slopes collecting over 2,000 millimeters annually. This moisture supports montane rainforests at higher elevations, transitioning to tropical semi-deciduous forests on lower slopes. The Sierra Maestra served as the operational base for Fidel Castro's guerrilla forces between 1956 and 1959, with the terrain's ruggedness providing tactical advantages that shaped the revolution's military campaign.
The Escambray Mountains occupy central Cuba in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos, and Villa Clara. This massif reaches 1,140 meters at Pico San Juan, its highest point. The Escambray consists primarily of limestone and marble formations from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, creating karst topography with caves, sinkholes, and underground drainage systems. Topes de Collantes, at 800 meters elevation within the range, serves as the center of a natural park covering 21,000 hectares. The area receives 2,400 millimeters of annual rainfall in some sections, feeding rivers including the Hanabanilla, which has been dammed to create Cuba's largest reservoir by surface area at 14.8 square kilometers. The mountains' forests contain Cuban pines at higher elevations and tropical broadleaf species on lower slopes. The limestone geology creates mineral-rich soils that support coffee cultivation on terraced slopes, a practice dating to the early 19th century when French planters migrated from Haiti.
The Cordillera de Guaniguanico extends across western Cuba in Pinar del Río province, divided into two distinct sub-ranges. The Sierra del Rosario, the eastern section, reaches 699 meters at Pan de Guajaibón and consists primarily of metamorphic rocks including slate and quartzite. The Sierra de los Órganos, the western section, comprises limestone formations creating the mogote karst landscape most famously visible in Viñales Valley. These mogotes—steep-sided residual hills rising from flat valley floors—result from differential erosion of Jurassic limestone over millions of years. Some mogotes exceed 300 meters in height, with vertical to overhanging walls hosting endemic plant species in isolated micro-habitats. The valley floors contain red lateritic soils derived from limestone weathering, which Cuban farmers use for tobacco cultivation. Viñales Valley, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape in 1999, covers 132 square kilometers of this karst terrain. The limestone contains extensive cave systems, including Cueva de Santo Tomás, Cuba's longest cave at 46 kilometers of surveyed passages across eight levels.
Cuba's coastline measures approximately 5,746 kilometers including all islands and cays, making it one of the most extensive in the Caribbean. The northern coast facing the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico generally features flatter topography with extensive beaches, barrier islands, and shallow lagoons. The southern coast along the Caribbean Sea shows more varied relief, with steep cliffs in mountainous sections and mangrove-fringed embayments elsewhere. The Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago stretches nearly 465 kilometers along the north-central coast, comprising over 2,500 cays including Cayo Coco, Cayo Guillermo, and Cayo Santa María. These cays rest on a shallow platform rarely exceeding 10 meters depth, with extensive seagrass beds and coral formations. Jardines de la Reina, a 250-kilometer archipelago along the southern coast, contains approximately 600 islands and cays within a marine protected area established in 1996. Los Canarreos Archipelago off the southwestern coast includes Isla de la Juventud and Cayo Largo del Sur. The Camagüey Archipelago's formation relates to sea-level changes during the Pleistocene, when lower ocean levels exposed more of the shallow platform before Holocene sea-level rise isolated these cays.
The Zapata Peninsula extends into the Caribbean Sea in Matanzas province, representing Cuba's largest wetland at approximately 4,520 square kilometers. The Ciénaga de Zapata (Zapata Swamp) occupies most of this peninsula, containing freshwater marshes, mangrove forests, and saline lagoons. The swamp reaches maximum elevations of only 2-3 meters above sea level, with much of the area at or below one meter. The underlying geology consists of limestone bedrock overlain by peat deposits up to four meters thick in some locations, accumulated over thousands of years from decomposing plant material in waterlogged conditions. The region receives 1,400 millimeters of annual rainfall, with seasonal flooding expanding wetland coverage during the May-October wet season. The swamp contains Laguna del Tesoro, a natural freshwater lake covering 16 square kilometers with maximum depths reaching 9 meters. The Hatiguanico River, Cuba's widest river at up to 900 meters across in some sections, drains northward through the western swamp. UNESCO designated the Ciénaga de Zapata as a Biosphere Reserve in 2000, recognizing its importance as habitat for endemic species and migratory birds. The Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) indents the southern coast of the peninsula, a semi-enclosed bay approximately 30 kilometers across where the failed 1961 invasion occurred.
Cuba contains over 200 rivers, though none rank as major by international standards. The Cauto River, Cuba's longest at 343 kilometers, drains the southern Sierra Maestra and flows northwest through Granma and Las Tunas provinces before entering the Caribbean Sea through a delta system. The Cauto's watershed covers 8,969 square kilometers, representing Cuba's largest drainage basin. The river carries significant sediment loads eroded from the Sierra Maestra, building delta deposits that have extended the coastline seaward over centuries. The Sagua la Grande in Villa Clara province measures 163 kilometers, draining northward to the Atlantic. The Zaza River in Sancti Spíritus province measures 155 kilometers and feeds the Zaza Reservoir, Cuba's largest reservoir by volume at 1,020 million cubic meters capacity. Cuban rivers show marked seasonal variation, with flows increasing substantially during the May-October rainy season when hurricanes and tropical storms can cause severe flooding. The northeastern rivers draining the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountains including the Toa River (118 kilometers) show less seasonal variation due to more consistent orographic rainfall in these mountains, which receive the Caribbean's highest annual precipitation in some locations exceeding 3,000 millimeters.