Jala () is both a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and a town in the Mexican state of

Nayarit Nayarit, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in Municipalities of Nayarit, 20 municipalit ...

. , the population of the municipality was 16,071, in a total area of 364.60 square kilometers. The population of the municipal seat of the same name was 9,631.

Etymology

The name Jala—place where there is a lot of sand—is derived from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

word ''xali'', which means ''sand'', and the variant ''tla'', which means ''place with an abundance of''.

Geography

The municipality of Jala is located in the southern part of the state of

; between parallels 21° 5’ and 21° 20’ latitude north and meridians 104° 18’ and 104° 31’ longitude west. It is bounded in the north by the municipalities of Santa María del Oro and

La Yesca La Yesca is a municipality and the municipal seat of the same in the Mexico, Mexican state of Nayarit, being the easternmost and least densely populated municipality in Nayarit. The population of the municipality was 12,025 (2005). The population ...

; in the south by the municipalities of Ahuacatlán and

Ixtlán del Río Ixtlán del Río is both a municipality and the municipal seat in the Mexican state of Nayarit. In 2018, the population of the municipality was 33,289, with 35,180 residents living in the municipal seat. The total area of the municipality is 581. ...

; in the east with Ixtlán del Río and in the west with Santa María del Oro. The

Rio Grande de Santiago Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

passes in the north of the municipality.

Economy

The economy is based on agriculture with the main crops being corn (

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

, and fruit trees. There is also cattle and swine breeding. Industrial and manufacturing activities include sugarcane mills, sawmills, brickworks, furniture factories, a packing plant for peaches, and several small transformation industries.

Tourist sites

The main site of touristic interest is Ceboruco volcano. It is reached by an 18-km stone-covered road from the main highway. The crater is a 3-km walk up a path from the end of the road. Ceboruco last erupted from 1870 until 1872 to produce a large flank flow of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

. According to researchers, in prehistoric times Ceborucco had at least 2 very large eruptions that produced 2 concentric calderas. Ceborucco rises about 1000 m above its base and has a summit elevation of . The original volcano was mostly made up of thin andesite lava flows and pyroclastic layers. Since the calderas formed, however, the flows have tended to be thick. See photos a

There is also an excavation area of an archeological site of a temple and burial grounds thought to date to 700 AD, nearby; one of the few round-based pyramids found in Mexico. Another is just SE of the town of Tequila, and known as Guachimontones.

External links

Wandering through NayaritWebshot phots of JalaScientific article on Ceboruco
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Jala´s Blog
{{Nayarit Populated places in Nayarit Municipalities of Nayarit Pueblos Mágicos