Araya is a town located on
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
's
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
coast, on the westernmost extremity of the
Araya Peninsula.
Araya Fortress
The Araya Fortress is a beige-brown stone
masonry
Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...
fortification
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...
. The fortification was built in order to defend Araya and the
Araya Peninsula against Caribbean
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
s.
The Spanish Empire only focused on the pearls that could be found off the coast at Cubagua and Margarita islands. Because this area had the largest salt plains in the country,
the Dutch and the English started extracting the salt, an important product at that time.
When the pearl harvesting came to an end, the Spanish used the fort to defend the salt plains against the English and the Dutch. The fort was abandoned after a hurricane destroyed the area and the salt reserves were lost.
References
External links
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Images of Araya fortress
Populated places in Sucre (state)
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