por . República Dominicana.

Santiago de los Caballeros, city, northern Dominican Republic. It is situated on the Yaque del Norte River, in the heart of the fertile Cibao Valley, and is known as the capital of the Cibao region.Santiago de los Caballeros is the country’s second largest city and is more traditional than the national capital, Santo Domingo. Whether founded in 1494 by Christopher Columbus (as some historians claim) or in 1495 by his brother Bartholomew Columbus, Santiago was among the first European settlements in the Americas. In 1504, 30 caballeros (gentlemen) of the Order of St. James (Santiago) moved from nearby La Isabela to Santiago, henceforth known as Santiago de los Caballeros. After being destroyed by an earthquake in 1562, the city was rebuilt a few miles away, where Nibaje Stream meets the Yaque; ruins of the old city are still visible in the city’s San Francisco de Jacagua district. Santiago survived numerous earthquakes and fires to serve repeatedly as the republic’s capital.The city’s economy long depended mainly on the production of cigarettes, rum, furniture, pharmaceuticals, soaps, leather articles, and processed foods, including cacao, milled rice, and dairy produce. Services, including tourism, have become increasingly important, however. Santiago is on the main highway linking Santo Domingo (85 miles km] southeast) with Monte Cristi in the extreme northwest. A regional international airport opened there in 2002. Pop. (2002) urban area, 507,418; (2010) urban area, 550,753.Also called: SantiagoTower Bridge over the Thames River in London, England. Opened in 1894. Remains an Important Traffic Route with 40,000 Crossings Every Day. landmarks include the San Luis Fort (now a museum), the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, various palaces, and the Cathedral of Santiago el Mayor situated opposite the city park (Parque Duarte). Institutions of higher learning include the Pontificia Católica Madre y Maestra University, established in 1962, and a technological university founded in 1974.Cibao Valley, valley in the northern Dominican Republic. It extends about 145 miles (235 km), from Manzanillo Bay in the west to Samaná Bay in the east. The mountain ranges of the Cordillera Septentrional and the rugged Cordillera Central bound the Cibao Valley on north and south, respectively. It has two climatic zones: the drier western section, traversed by the Yaque del Norte River, has savanna vegetation, with patches of low, thorny bushes; the east, watered by the Yuna River, is the humid, fertile La Vega Real region, a name given it by Christopher Columbus. Chief crops are, in the west, wheat and, with modern irrigation, rice and bananas; in La Vega Real, coffee, tobacco, cacao, corn (maize), and rice are grown. The Cibao Valley is the country’s most densely settled region. European colonization began there in 1494, when Columbus searched for gold in La Vega Real on his second voyage.