[1] Besides being a navigational aid for ships cruising along the Caribbean coast between the nearby port of Barranquilla and Cartagena, it is also a monument dedicated to the many immigrants who entered the country through the port of Puerto Colombia and brought to the country knowledge and technological advances.

This is a town that was founded in the mid-1800s and flourished with that important commercial activity until the 1940s, when a new port was built closer to Barranquilla and that of Puerto Colombia was abandoned.

Internally constructed as a frame of hot-dip galvanized steel weighting 120 tons, the building is 70 metres (230 ft) high.

The covering consists of 25 tons of aluminium and 1,940 square metres (20,900 sq ft) of laminated and toughened glass panels, tainted in variable blue/green shades reminiscent of the colors of the nearby Caribbean sea.

[1] The lighthouse light has a range of 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi), and an autonomous photovoltaic energy system.