Bolívar's birthplace beneath the Ávila mountain
Caracas lies in a long valley separated from the Caribbean by the forested wall of El Ávila, now a national park, where a cable car climbs towards the summit. Simón Bolívar was born here in 1783, and his birthplace and the National Pantheon, where he is buried, are the key historic sites around the Plaza Bolívar. The Ciudad Universitaria, designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva with works by Calder and other artists, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a landmark of modernist architecture.