Valle de los Ingenios

Valle de los Ingenios, or the Valley of the Sugar Mills, is a series of three interconnected valleys, San Luis, Santa Rosa and Meyer, about 12 kilometers outside Trinidad, Cuba. The valleys were a center of sugar production from the late 18th to the late 19th century, with more than fifty sugar cane mills operating at the industry's peak and over 30,000 enslaved people working the mills and surrounding plantations. In 1988 the valley and neighboring Trinidad were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of this early sugar trade, and the area, covering 270 square kilometers, includes the remains of more than 70 former sugar mills.