Coatzacoalcos

Coatzacoalcos on the map of Vera Cruz

Coatzacoalcos is a port city in the southeast of the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Location

The port city of Coatzacoalcos is almost 600 drive miles away in the south-east of Mexico City; it lies in the north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at the mouth of the Río Coatzacoalcos in the Gulf of Mexico. Vera Cruz, the former capital of the state, is located about 300 kilometers driven in a northwesterly direction away.

Population

Coatzacoalcos has an area of ​​471.16 km ² to 270,000 inhabitants; the figures vary, as often the entire county ( municipio ) is meant. In the year 1970 89.696 inhabitants were counted; in 1980 there were 162 105, 258 226 in 1990 already.

Economy

The city itself is now used primarily as a housing estate just yet have smaller port facilities; the important seaport located in Minatitlán on the opposite side of the river. This was expanded in the years 1899-1907, after a railway line was opened by the Isthmus of Tehuantepec which connected Coatzacoalcos with Salina Cruz on the Pacific Ocean. In and around Minatitlán especially the petrochemical industry is established.

Infrastructure

Completed in 1980, cable-stayed bridge over the Río Coatzacoalcos is with a total length of 1170 m and a pillar height of 100 meters one of the landmarks of modern Mexico. Only about two kilometers further north is a four-lane 2.3 km long (of which approximately 700 m below the river ) road tunnel nearing completion, of the city on the western river bank at a depth of 30 m ( 10 m below the deepened river bed ) to connect with the port and the industrial zone of Minatitlán on the east side. South of Minatitlán is also an international airport.

History

The convenient location in one seeartig widened Bayou, which offered good fishing possibilities, makes it probable that the place was inhabited long before the appearance of advanced civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Spaniards conquered it in the 1520s; approximately 700 m wide and 28 km deep estuary of the Río Coatzacoalcos proved - as Hernán Cortés remarked in a letter to Charles V - as economically and strategically and protected harbor. Cortés founded on the opposite bank, the city of Villa del Espíritu Santo. The area proved to be subsequently considered to be peaceful and thus became an important station in the further advance of the Spaniards in the provinces of Veracruz, Tabasco and Oaxaca.

After the independence of Mexico (1821 ) and the imperial interlude Maximilian ( 1864-1867 ) received Coatzacoalcos city rights in 1881. In 1900 the name of the city in Puerto México was converted to emphasize the special importance of the port for the country; In 1936 to rename the Coatzacoalcos.

Legend

The name of the city means in Nahuatl, the language of the local Indians: " The place where the snake is gone. " It refers to the legend of the flight or emigration of the god-king Quetzalcoatl across the sea. Both the coat of arms as well as the museum pyramid refer to it.

Attractions

  • The excavation of the tunnel construction was an abundance of pottery shards to the fore, which - in the opinion of archaeologists - different cultural epochs and civilizations ( Olmec, Mayan, Totonac, and others) are attributable. It is likely that some will be to see them in a museum.
  • The Museo de Arqueología is housed in the ' pyramid ' on the promenade ( Malecón ) and displays over 900 smaller exhibits on the history, art and culture of the Olmecs.
  • The old Cathedral of San José, a two-tower building from the 1940s was demolished in late 2012. Already in 1984 a modern new building was inaugurated immediately adjacent.
  • The Palacio Municipal is a building from the 1950s and rises in the city center.
  • The Parque Independencia is located directly in front of the Municipal Palace and serves the population - especially in the evenings - to stroll and promenading.

Personalities

Twin Cities

  • Philippines San Fernando, Philippines
  • People's Republic of China, Shandong, People's Republic of China
  • People's Republic of China Rizhao, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
  • Mexico Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico
  • Mexico Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico
  • Mexico Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico
Ranked list of Mexican states Maya civilization San Fernando (La Union) Roman Catholic Diocese of Coatzacoalcos
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