The normal clatter and music of its streets quieted, Havana came together on Wednesday morning to give Fidel Castro a final send-off as his ashes began their long, symbolic journey eastwards across the island nation back to Santiago de Cuba, the cradle if his revolution.

Thier last chance to see the departed comrade, residents of the delapidated capital formed a solid and hushed line along both sides of the seafront Malecon – a curving boulevard of once-gracious, now mostly crumbling homes facing the Caribbean sea – as his cedar-wood coffin passed slowly by, borne by a simple flat-bed trailer fringed with white flowers, drawn by a green, military jeep.

Earlier, after sunrise, the simple caravan had emerged from the Ministry of Defence, to start the symbolic journey that will take the remains of Cuba’s legendary leader for five decades almost the full length of the island nation from the capital to its eastern tip.

Set to cover 550 miles and take three days, it will be the reverse of the same journey Mr Castro and his bearded band of fellow revolutionaries took when they marched in victory to Havana in 1959. It will not be lonely with Cubans expected to turn out to line the route for all of its length, many from rural parts, newly impoverished by the collapse of its once mighty sugar industry.

After his death late on Friday at 90 years of age, Mr Castro, known simply as El Commandante, was cremated on Saturday. Following nine days of official mourning during which everything from loud music to the sale of alcohol has been banned, his ashes will be interred on Sunday.

Crowds on the Malecon wait for a glimpse of Castro's coffin beneath the iconic National Hotel (AP)

Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening the people of Havana had their moment to pay tribute to a figure who still divides emotions on the island and around the world. He was an icon of the left who stood up to the United States for fifty years, withstanding economic bullying and even assassination attempts, and a dictator who trampled human rights and freedoms.

At Revolution Square, hundreds of thousands joined long lines to lay flowers and hear foreign allies of the left pay tribute to Mr Castro and watch grainy, black-and-white film clips dating from the birth of his reign. Those were the first days when Che Guevara was at his side and they had seized the Havana Hilton as their makeshift headquarters, a hotel once again, filling its rooms with the new surge of foreign tourists unleashed in part by the new thaw with the United States.

“He more than fulfilled his mission on this earth,” declared Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose government supports Cuba's ailing economy with oil sold at a steep discount, a policy of socialist solidarity introduced by the late Hugo Chavez and a crutch for Cuba that was all the more vital as it struggled to survive the loss of patronage from the collapsed Soviet Union. “Few lives have been so complete, so bright,” President Maduro added. “He has left unconquered.”

The simple cortege on the Malecon, the flatbed trailer fringed with flowers (AP)

Left behind is a Cuba where the average wage is $25 a month and where even basic internet connections are mostly unavailable to its still isolated population. But standing on the main dais, President Jacob Zuma of South African praised the other legacy Mr Castro left behind: a record on education and healthcare mostly unmatched in many of the hemisphere’s other poorer nations.

Fidel Castro, President Zuma told the massive crowd, will be remembered as “a great fighter for the idea that the poor have a right to live with dignity”.

While the world is invited to attend a final memorial service on 4 December in Havana, few other leaders will attend, a reflection of the ambiguity felt for Mr Castro’s mixed record of benign populism and unbending authoritarianism. The United States – which under President Barack Obama this year began a slow process of diplomatic and economic normalisation that may or may not be continued by President-elect Donald Trump – is to be represented only by a top foreign policy aide in the White House, Ben Rhodes. Neither Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain nor Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are expected to attend.

Fidel Castro funeral procession Show all 20 1 /20 Fidel Castro funeral procession Fidel Castro funeral procession The funeral procession carrying the ashes of Fidel Castro departs after a ceremony in Santa Clara, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession People line a road to watch as the caravan carrying Cuba's late President Fidel Castro's ashes passes by in Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession People line a road to watch as the caravan carrying Cuba's late President Fidel Castro's ashes enters Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession People line a road to watch as the caravan carrying Cuba's late President Fidel Castro's ashes goes past Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession Daniel Hernandez, 4, salutes while awaiting the caravan carrying the late Cuban President Fidel Castro's ashes in Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A boy and a girl in their special position waiting for the arrival of the convoy carrying the remains of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Cienfuegos, 240 km southeast from Havana Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession People wait along the Carretera Central to see the convoy carrying the urn with the ashes of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro AFP/Getty Images Fidel Castro funeral procession People watch the funeral procession carrying Fidel Castro's ashes through Santa Spiritus province in Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession Cubans wait for the passage of the convoy carrying the remains of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A woman holds an image of Cuba's late President Fidel Castro while awaiting the caravan carrying Castro's ashes Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession Yenia Coutinio poses for a picture while waiting for the funeral procession carrying Fidel Castro's ashes AP Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A man waits for the caravan carrying the ashes of Cuba's leader Fidel Castro at a sugar cane plantation in Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession A student holds an image of Cuba's late President Fidel Castro while awaiting the caravan carrying Castro's ashes in Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession A child reacts to the camera as he stands next to a truck used to carry people to a spot where they could watch the convoy carrying Fidel Castro's ashes in Gaspar, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession Wearing signs that read in Spanish 'I am Fidel', men sit on their horses as they wait to see the convoy carrying the ashes of Cuba's leader Fidel Castro on its way to the east of the country in Florida, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession People paint stones laid out as a tribute to Cuba's late President Fidel Castro in Las Tunas, Cuba Reuters

When the interment has taken place, Cuba finally will be without a figure whose stature has not been matched by the brother who took over the reins in 2008, Raul Castro, or by the man who is expected to succeed him in just 15 months’ time, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who has been first Vice President since 2013. What will remain, at least for the foreseeable future, is the Communist apparatus that has kept Cuba apart from its neighbours, including the US, for so long.