Pitons of Saint Lucia

Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, the Pitons Management Area protects Gros Piton and Petit Piton, twin volcanic spires of relatively recent origin — under 100,000 years old — that rise abruptly and almost vertically straight out of the Caribbean, and have become the most recognisable landscape symbol of Saint Lucia and of much of the Caribbean tourist imagination as a whole. Their slopes, under rainforest almost to the summit, contrast with the sulphurous hot springs of Sulphur Springs at their foot, left by the region's residual volcanic activity.