page_title: Turks and Caicos Islands
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Turks and Caicos Islands / Population / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: The Turks &amp; Caicos National Museum is located in a colonial-era Guinep House on Front Street in the capital of Cockburn Town, on Grand Turk island. Español: El Museo Nacional de Las Islas Turcas y Caicos está situado en la Casa Guinep, un edificio construido en la época colonial, de la Calle Front, en la capital de Cockburn Town, en la isla Gran Turca.
context_page_description: The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population was 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands; July 2020 estimates put the population at 55,926. It is the third largest of the British overseas territories by population.
  The Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in The Bahamas island chain, northeast of Cuba, and north of the island of Hispaniola. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, United States. The islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres.
  The Turks and Caicos Islands were inhabited for centuries by native Amerindian peoples. The first recorded European sighting of the islands occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers, with the British Empire eventually gaining control.
context_section_description: The Turks and Caicos Islands are perhaps best known musically for ripsaw music, a genre which originated on the islands. The Turks and Caicos Islands are known for their annual Music and Cultural Festival showcasing many local talents and other dynamic performances by many music celebrities from around the Caribbean and United States.
  Women continue traditional crafts of using a straw to make baskets and hats on the larger Caicos islands. It is possible that this continued tradition is related to the liberated Africans who joined the population directly from Africa in the 1830s and 1841 from shipwrecked slavers; they brought cultural craft skills with them.
  The island's most popular sports are fishing, sailing, football (soccer) and cricket (which is the national sport).
  Turks and Caicos cuisine is based primarily around seafood, especially conch.  Two common dishes, whilst not traditionally 'local', are conch fritters and conch salad.
caption: The Turks and Caicos National Museum on Grand Turk
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