Walls of Cartagena is an 5.83 mile run twice circumnavigating Cartagena’s old city walls. The double loop course begins and ends at the Cartagena Clock Tower (which is built into the old city walls with three open archways) and continues on Avenida Blas de Lezo, Plaza de la Independence, Calle del Arsenal, Avenida del Pedregal, Avenida Luis Carlos Lopez, Avenida Del Mar, Carrera 1, Calle de la Ronda, and back to the Cartagena Clock Tower before beginning the second loop.
Cartagena is renowened for its colonial architecture and military fortifications. Cartagena was founded in 1533 by a Spanish commander and quickly became a major port shipping sugar, tobacco, cocoa, and gold from Colombia’s interior across the Caribbean and Atlantic. Regrettably, the city also became the center of the African slave trade in the Americas, with an estimated 1.1 million captive slaves entering Cartagena’s docks before abolishment in 1851.
Riches exported from Cartagena helped finance the empire’s expansion in the Americas, making it a prime target for piracy. In response to repeated pirate attacks, including a month-long occupation by the legendary Sir Francis Drake in 1586, Spanish King Philip III ordered the construction of defensive fortifications beginning in 1614. “The Walls of Cartagena” were completed in 1796 and remain the oldest and most intact examples of Spanish colonial defensive walls in America. Cartagena was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.
