The Araya Peninsula is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

on the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, located in

Sucre State The Sucre State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is Cumaná city. Sucre State covers a total surface area of and, as of the 2011 census, had a population of 896,921. The most important river in ...

, northern

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 ...

. It extends westward and encloses a long bay which opens to the west. To the north is

Margarita Island Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the States of Venezuela, Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the north west coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the ...

The town of Araya is located on its westernmost extremity. The peninsula is part of the eastern Serranía del Litoral mountain range, in the

Venezuelan Coastal Range The Venezuelan Coastal Range ( or ), also known as Venezuelan Caribbean Mountain System (), is a mountain range system and one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela, that runs along the central and eastern portions of Venezuela's northern coa ...

s System of the northern Andes. The western tip of the Araya Peninsula is known for its large, purple-colored natural salt pans, which became a major site of salt mining during the colonial era. The salt mines of the Araya Peninsula were the setting of the award-winning 1959

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

'' Araya'' by filmmaker

Margot Benacerraf Margot Benacerraf (14 August 1926 – 29 May 2024) was a Venezuelan film director. She studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies, IDHEC) in Paris and is best known for her 195 ...

. The Dutch and the salt pans: The Dutch North Sea fishing fleet needed a great deal of salt to preserve its catch. When the war made Iberian salt inaccessible, from about 1599 the Dutch began illegally loading salt at Araya. The salt here was said to be unusually good and inexhaustible. The Dutch also engaged in smuggling and petty piracy, threatened the pearl fishery on Margarita Island and were too numerous for the local Spanish to deal with. In 1605 a fleet was sent from Spain. They captured a dozen or more ships and sent their crews to the galleys. Next year the Dutch were back. During the twelve years’ truce the Dutch shifted back to Iberia, but when it expired in 1621 they came back. The Spanish established a fort possibly Araya Fortress, needs check and garrison. In the next two years there were battles and the Dutch were driven out. The Dutch then shifted to places like

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

Saint Martin (island) Saint Martin is an island in Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the northeastern Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The island is divided roughly 60:40 between the France, French Republic () and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ...

and

La Tortuga Island La Tortuga Island (; "La Tortuga" means literally "the turtle") is an uninhabited island of Venezuela, the largest in the Federal Dependencies of Venezuela. It is part of a group of islands that include the Tortuguillos and Cayo Herradura. Is ...

References

External links

Images of the Araya Peninsula
Peninsulas of Venezuela Geography of Sucre (state) Venezuelan Coastal Range {{Venezuela-geo-stub

See also

References

External links