The Viñales Valley was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999 due to its cultural landscape and traditional farm and village architecture. Said to be a favorite place of Fidel Castro, Viñales is a lush valley in Pinar del Río province of Cuba (pop. 10,000) where old-fashioned farming methods are still used, especially to grow tobacco. The Valley is dotted with large mountain formations, remnants of a great limestone plateau eroded over the millenniums. The steep formations are called mogotes, which means “haystacks.”