The Sierra de Guadalupe is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in Mexico. It is found between the borough of Gustavo A. Madero in northern

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and the municipalities of

Cuautitlán Izcalli Cuautitlán Izcalli () is a city and one of the 125 municipalities that make up the State of Mexico. Its municipal seat is Cuautitlán Izcalli. It is located in the Valley of Mexico area, and is part of the Metropolitan area of Mexico City. It ...

, Tultitlán, Coacalco, Ecatepec and Tlalnepantla, in the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

. Its highest peak is at .

History

There is evidence that the Aztecs worshipped Tonantzin (Goddess of Sustenance) at

Tepeyac Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names Tepeyacac and Tepeaquilla, is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, D.F., Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost ''Alcaldía'' or borough of Mexico City. According to the Catholic traditio ...

hill. The sierra is named after

Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, Juan Bernardino reported in December 1531, when t ...

, a

Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are more often understood as ...

that, according to oral and written colonial sources such as the '' Huei tlamahuiçoltica'',

Juan Diego Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474–1548), also known simply as Juan Diego (), was a Nahua peasant and Marian visionary. He is said to have been granted apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe on four occasions in December 1531: three at the hill o ...

saw at the Tepeyac hill. In 1937, the El Tepeyac National Park was created in the Tepeyac hill, in the eastern portion of the sierra, by decree of the president

Lázaro Cárdenas Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revo ...

Geology

The sierra is a

dormant volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often ...

that is part of the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks have snow all year long, and dur ...

. The basement is made of

andesitic 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 ...

and dacitic soil. The last volcanic activity in the area occurred 14 to 15 million years ago.

Ecology

Climate

The sierra has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

. It rains mostly during summers with rainfall of between 700 and 800 mm (2.5 and 3.5 in) per year. The temperature ranges from 12 to 16 °C (53 to 60 °F).

Fauna

Among the species found in the sierra, it is included the Mexican pine snake, the

American kestrel The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius'') is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. Though it has been called the American sparrowhawk, this common name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither th ...

, the roadrunner, the

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North A ...

, and the

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

Introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

include the

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a Suidae, pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk (proboscis). Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, South and Centr ...

s and

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

Flora

In the area, ''

quercus An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

'' trees and

xerophile A xerophile () is an extremophilic organism that can grow and reproduce in conditions with a low availability of water, also known as water activity. Physics Water activity, a thermodynamical value denoted , is defined as the partial water vapo ...

plants are abundant.

Preservation

The area has suffered from environmental deterioration due to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

. Part of the eastern part of the sierra was reforested with the introduction of ''

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

'', ''

pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

'', ''

cedrus ''Cedrus'', with the common English name cedar, is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae (subfamily Abietoideae). They are native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altitud ...

'' and ''

casuarina ''Casuarina'', also known as she-oak, Australian pine and native pine, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Casuarinaceae, and is native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and e ...

'' trees.

Hills

It is composed of the following hills: * Cerro del Sombrero or Pico Tres Padres * Cerro de los Gachupines () *

Cerro del Chiquihuite Cerro del Chiquihuite (Chiquihuite Hill) is a hill located in the north of Mexico City, in the borough of Gustavo A. Madero, D.F., Gustavo A. Madero and bordering the municipality of Tlalnepantla de Baz in the State of Mexico. The hill has a heig ...

() * Cerro del Picacho Moctezuma () * Cerro del Picacho El Fraile () * Cerro del Picacho El Jaral * Cerro del Tenayo * Cerro Petlecatl * Cerro de la Calavera * Cerro Gordo * Cerro Zacatenco () * Cerro del Guerrero () * Cerro de Santa Isabel * Cerro del Tepeyac ()

Gallery

File:Caseta de vigilancia Forestal y antenas de T.V. - panoramio.jpg, Cerro Picacho Moctezuma File:Cerro Zacatenco.jpg, Cerro Zacatenco File:Cerro los Gachupines 01.jpg, Cerro Los Gachupines File:Cerro del Chuiquihuite - Panorama.JPG, Cerro del Chiquihuite File:Cerro Gordo, Ecatepec (2024) 1.jpg, Cerro Gordo File:Panoramica de la Ciudad de México desde el Tepeyac - panoramio.jpg, The

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe The Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe, officially called Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe (in English: Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe) is a basilica of the Catholic Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her invoc ...

is located at the Cerro del Tepeyac File:Sierra de Guadalupe.jpg, Wider view File:ISS029-E-38973 - View of Mexico (Sierra de Guadalupe).jpg, Satellite view

References

External links

*{{commons category inline, Sierra de Guadalupe Coacalco de Berriozábal Cuautitlán Izcalli Ecatepec de Morelos Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City Landforms of Mexico City Landforms of the State of Mexico Mountain ranges of Mexico Tlalnepantla de Baz Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Tultitlán