Mexico Geography

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Mexico is a mountainous country: over half is above 1000 m. The structure of the Rocky Mountains continues south to form the spine of Mexico, but here the mountains are known as the Sierra Madre. They rise southwards to culminate in a series of volcanic peaks (of up to 6000 m) that surround the high level plateau where Mexico City is located, at about 2300 m. The only extensive lowlands fringe the Gulf of Mexico and they widen out to form the bulk of the Yucatan peninsula.

Covering almost 2 million sq km, Mexico is big: it's nearly 3500km as the crow flies from Tijuana, in the northwest, to Cancun in the southeast, or about 4600km by road. To get from the US border at Ciudad Juarez to Mexico City, you must travel 1850km (about 24 hours by bus). From Mexico City to the Guatemalan border at Ciudad Cuauhtemoc is over 1200km.

Mexico curves from northwest to southeast, narrowing to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the south and then continuing northeast to the Yucatan Peninsula. To the west and south it's bordered by the Pacific Ocean. The Sea of Cortez (Golfo de California) lies between the mainland and Baja California, the world's longest peninsula 1300km of mountains, deserts, plains and beaches. Mexico's east coast is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico all the way from the US border to the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. The eastern Yucatan Peninsula faces the Caribbean Sea.

The country has a 3326krn northern border with the US, the eastern half of which is formed by the Rio Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande, as it's called in the US). In the south and southeast are a 962km border with Guatemala and a 250km border with Belize.