CIUDAD DE CURA, an inland town of the State of Aragua, Venezuela, 55m. S.W. of Caracas, near the Lago de Valencia. Pop. estimate 13,000. The town stands in a broad, fertile valley, between the sources of streams running southward to the Guarico river and northward to the lake, with an elevation above sea-level of 1,598ft. Traffic between Puerto Cabello and the Guarico plains has passed through this town since early colonial times, and has made it an important commercial centre, from which hides, cheese, coffee, cacao and beans are sent down to the coast for ex port ; it bears a high reputation in Venezuela for commercial enter prise. Ciudad de Cura was founded in 173o, and suffered severely in the war of independence.