Bocagrande
Beachfront peninsula of high-rise hotels and apartments, built atop a deliberately sealed sea channel.
Location
About this audio guide
Bocagrande in Cartagena is built on a channel that once carried ships until the sea sealed it shut. The guide traces the sandbank wreck of 1640 that started trapping sand, and the string of engineers, Ignacio Sala, then Lorenzo Solis, who tried and failed to close the gap for good. A third engineer, Antonio de Arevalo, started over in November 1771, sinking huge woven baskets packed with sand straight into the strait before piling stone on top.
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