Sierra Madre de Oaxaca | |
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Sierra Norte de Oaxaca | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 3,396 m (11,142 ft) |
Geography | |
Sierra Madre de Oaxaca lies west of Chivela Pass and north of the Sierra Madre del Sur range | |
Country | Mexico |
Region | Oaxaca |
Parent range | Sierra Madre Oriental |
The Sierra Madre de Oaxaca is a mountain range in southern Mexico. It is primarily in the state of Oaxaca, and extends north into the states of Puebla and Veracruz.
The mountain range begins at Pico de Orizaba, and extends in a southeasterly direction for 300 km (190 mi) until reaching the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Peaks in the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca average 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in elevation, with some peaks exceeding 3,000 m (9,800 ft). Cerro Zempoaltépetl is the highest peak in the range.
The Sierra is composed of several sub-ranges, including the Sierra de Zongolica–Sierra Mazateca between the Río Blanco canyon and the Santo Domingo River, the Sierra Juárez between the Santo Domingo and Cajones rivers, the Sierra de Villa Alta south of the Cajones River, the Sierra Ixtlán southwest of the Sierra Juárez, and the Sierra Mixe in the southeast.
The eastern slopes of the range are wetter, intercepting moisture-laden winds from the Gulf of Mexico. A number of drier valleys, including the Tehuacán and Cuicatlán valleys and Valley of Oaxaca, lie to the west in the rain shadow of the range.
Other major mountain range systems in the region are the Sierra Madre del Sur to the south and southwest along the Pacific coast, and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the east across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The Blanco River rises at the northern end of the range, and cuts a large canyon through the Sierra on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The Papaloapan River drains much of the northern and central Sierra, including both the eastern and western slopes of the range, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. At the eastern end, the northern slopes are drained by tributaries of the Coatzacoalcos River. The southern slopes are drained by several rivers, including the Verde-Atoyac and Tehuantepec, which empty into the Pacific.
Much of the Sierra is composed of Jurassic-Cretaceous limestone. Water has in many places eroded the limestone into karst topography, including several large cave systems. These include the Chevé Caves (−1536 m) in the Sierra Juaréz, and the Huautla Caves (−1560 m) in the Sierra Mazateca. [1]
The Sierra Madre de Oaxaca pine-oak forests ecoregion lies above 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) in elevation. The humid Oaxacan montane forests ecoregion lies below 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) in elevation, on the eastern slopes above the Veracruz lowlands. To the east, the xeric Tehuacan Valley matorral ecoregion occupies the Tehuacan valley to the northwest, the Balsas dry forests ecoregion occupies the upper basin of the Santo Domingo River, which lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca. The Southern Pacific dry forests ecoregion lies to the south along the Pacific Coast of Mexico, extending into the upper basin of the Tehuantepec River and the Valley of Oaxaca.
Culturally and geographically, the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca System can be split into many smaller sierras or subranges, each with unique ecologies and human cultures.
The Sierra Mazateca, located in northwestern Oaxaca state, reach elevations around 2,600 metres (8,500 ft). Cerro Rabon is its most unusual peak, albeit not its highest, the whale shaped "Holy Mountain of the Mazatecs". It is the homeland of the Mazatec people. Important towns include: Huautla de Jiménez, Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, and Jalapa de Díaz.
The Sierra de Cuicatlan, south of the Sierra Mazateca, are a range which divides the low canyonlands of Cuicatlan from the Sierra Juarez to the west and is home to the Cuicatec people.
The Sierra Juárez is the land of the Sierra Zapotecs. It is the birthplace of Mexico's only indigenous president, Benito Juárez. The main towns of the Sierra Juarez are Ixtlan de Juárez, San Ildefonso Villa Alta, and Villa Hidalgo Yalalag.
The Sierra Chinanteca, north of the Sierra Juárez, are home to Chinantec towns including Santiago Comaltepec, San Pedro Yolóx and San Felipe Usila.
The Sierra Mixe, as the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca descends towards the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, home to the Mixe people, descendants of the ancient Olmecs of Mexico's Gulf Coast, lies to the east. The major Mixe centers are San Pablo and San Pedro Ayutla, Santiago Zacatepec, and Santa María Totontepec, and the major peak of the area is Zempoateptl, the sacred mountain of the Mixe people.
Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of the United Mexican States. It is divided into 570 municipalities, of which 418 are governed by the system of usos y costumbres with recognized local forms of self-governance. Its capital city is Oaxaca de Juárez.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the Tehuantepec Route. The name is taken from the town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca; this was derived from the Nahuatl term Tēcuāntepēc.
The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca.
The Mixe are an Indigenous people of Mexico who live in the eastern highlands of the state of Oaxaca. They speak the Mixe languages, which are classified in the Mixe–Zoque family, and are more culturally conservative than other Indigenous groups of the region, maintaining their language to this day. SIL international estimated that 90,000 Mixe spoke Mixe language in 1993.
The Sierra Madre de Oaxaca pine–oak forests is a tropical and subtropical coniferous forests ecoregion in Southern Mexico.
The Balsas dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion located in western and central Mexico.
The Tehuacán Valley matorral is a xeric shrubland ecoregion, of the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, located in eastern Central Mexico.
Huautla de Jimenez is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region.
La Sierra Norte de Oaxaca is a heavily wooded region in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It is 62 km from the city of Oaxaca on Federal highway 175, heading east towards Tuxtepec. The region is divided into three districts: Ixtlán, which has 26 municipalities, Villa Alta, which has 25 municipalities and Mixe, which has 17 municipalities.
Mazatlán Villa de Flores is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region. As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 12,934.
The Salado River is a river in the states of Puebla and Oaxaca in Mexico.
The Santo Domingo River in Oaxaca state, Mexico is one of the main tributaries of the Papaloapan River. It is formed by the confluence of the Salado and Grande rivers, which drain the dry Tehuacán and Cuicatlán valleys west of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca. The Santo Domingo river flows east through the Sierra Madre, dividing the Sierra Zongolica sub-range to the north from the Sierra Juárez to the south. It joins with the Valle Nacional River above San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec to form the Papaloapan.
The Sierra Juárez is a range of mountains in Oaxaca state, Mexico between latitudes 17°20'-17°50'N and longitudes 96°15'-97°00'W, with an area of about 1,700 km². It is part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca. The range is separated from the Sierra de Zongólica to the north by the Santo Domingo River, flowing through the Tecomavaca Canyon. It stretches south-eastward to the Cajones River and the Sierra de Villa Alta. The mountains are in the district of Ixtlán de Juárez in the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca region. The range is named after Mexico's only indigenous president, Benito Juárez, who was born here in 1806 in the small village of San Pablo Guelatao. The heavily wooded area is about 62 km (39 mi) from the city of Oaxaca on Federal highway 175, heading towards Tuxtepec.
Cañada is a region in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico covering 4,300 square km. It includes two districts, Teotitlán and Cuicatlán. The main administrative center is Teotitlán de Flores Magón, but Huautla de Jiménez is considered the most important cultural center in the region.
The Indigenous people of Oaxaca are descendants of the inhabitants of what is now the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, who were present before the Spanish invasion. Several cultures flourished in the ancient region of Oaxaca from as far back as 2000 BC, of whom the Zapotecs and Mixtecs were perhaps the most advanced, with complex social organization and sophisticated arts.
The Sierra Madre del Sur pine–oak forests is a subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range of southern Mexico.
The Sierra Mazateca is a mountainous area, part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca mountain range, located in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico. It is named after the Mazatec people, who are indigenous to the area.
Tecóatl Mazatec, also known as Eloxochitlán Mazatec and Northern Highland Mazatec, is a Mazatecan language spoken in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Puebla, notably in the towns of San Jerónimo Tecóatl, Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, San Lucas Zoquiapam, Santa Cruz Acatepec, San Pedro Ocopetatillo, San Lorenzo Cuaunecuiltitla, Santa Ana Ateixtlahuaca, and San Francisco Huehuetlán. Egland found 76% intelligibility with Huautla, the prestige variety of Mazatec, though SIL reports that speakers of all dialects "have considerable difficulty understanding the prestigious variant spoken in Huautla de Jiménez"
The Sierra Atravesada or Sierra de Niltepec is a mountain range in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán biosphere reserve is a protected natural area located in southeastern Mexico. Its name derives from its two main locations: Cuicatlán and Tehuacán, in the latter are their administrative offices, covers 490,186 hectares distributed among 21 municipalities in the state of Puebla and Oaxaca.