Darien Gulf

The Gulf of Darién opens into the southern Caribbean between Panama and Colombia. At its southern end the Atrato River flows into the Gulf of Urabá, connecting the coast with the forested interior. In 1510 Spanish colonists founded Santa María la Antigua del Darién on the western side of the gulf, on the site of an Indigenous settlement. It served as a base for expeditions into the surrounding lands before its abandonment in the 1520s.