Fidel Castro's Ashes Begin a Four-day Journey Across Cuba from Havana Wednesday Nov 30,2016

Fidel Castro's ashes began a four-day journey across Cuba on Wednesday Nov 30,2016  from Havana to their final resting place in the eastern city of Santiago.

A small, Cuban-flag covered cedar coffin containing the remains of the 90-year-old leader was taken out of Cuba's Defence Ministry just after 7 am and placed into a flower-bedecked trailer pulled by a green military vehicle for the more than 800-kilometre procession.

The ashes will be interred Sunday Dec 04,2016, ending the nine-day mourning period for the man who ruled the country for nearly 50 years.

The route traces in reverse the victory tour Castro and his bearded rebels took after overthrowing the forces of strongman Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Outside Havana, the caravan will pass through rural communities significantly changed by social and economic reforms he adopted.

Many residents now have access to health care and education.

 But many of those towns are also in a prolonged economic collapse, the country's once-dominant sugar industry decimated, the sugar mills and plantations gone.

Thousands of Cubans lined the streets of Havana, some sleeping on sidewalks overnight, to bid goodbye to Fidel Castro.

Note

Named one of the 100 most influential personalities of all time by Time Magazine in 2012, Fidel Castro ruled Cuba for fifty years - as Prime Minister and later, as President - before officially handing over power to his brother Raul Castro in 2008.