Cartagena City Map Poster

About Cartagena

Cartagena is a popular tourist destination, with the city attracting over 500,000 visitors per year. The historic centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered one of the world's most important cultural destinations. It has an economy that relies primarily on tourism and trade; however, it is also one of Colombia's major ports for shipping coffee to Europe as well as importing machinery for its industrial sector. In recent years there have been successful efforts at encouraging further economic diversification in Cartagena such as through music festivals and convention centres but despite these efforts unemployment remains high at around 20% (2014). The city was named after Cartagena de Indias on December 8th 1533 by Spanish explorer Pedro de Heredia under orders from King Charles V of Spain who established the settlement under the authority of Francis Drake in order to establish a presence near gold mines discovered nearby which were exploited by Sir Walter Raleigh during his expedition into present-day North Carolina between 1584–1586 AD .