Sierra Madre de Chiapas

The Sierra Madre de Chiapas (also: Sierra Madre de Soconusco ) is a two hundred kilometer long mountain range in the state of Chiapas in southeastern Mexico. He joins east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and sweeps in a southeasterly direction to the border back to Guatemala, where he is known as Sierra Madre.

Geography

The Sierra Madre de Chiapas is part of a volcanic mountain ranges dominated ( Cordillera ) to the west in the Americas and reaches heights of over 3000 meters, sometimes even more than 4000 meters above sea level. inst ( volcanoes Tacaná and Tajumulco ). The mountain range separates the catchment areas of the rivers Mezcalapa, a tributary of the opening into the Bahía de Campeche Río Grijalva, one of which opens into the Pacific Ocean coastal rivers (Río Suchiate and others), whose length hardly exceeds 50 km.

Population

The population of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas consists of various Mayan tribes, of which the Quiché and Mam the most numerous and important (see also Mayan languages ​​).

History

By 1400 the area came under Aztec control; from this period the many landscape designations and place names in the Nahuatl language. In the years 1523/4, the area was conquered by the Spanish conquistadores under the leadership of Pedro de Alvarado.

Economy

Popular article of commerce in the pre-colonial period were cacao, feathers and genuine cotton ( kapok). Today, coffee is grown at altitudes up to about 1000 meters.

Attractions

Apart from many natural beauties and a rich fauna and flora provides the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the archeological zone of Izapa one of the most important pre-Columbian localities in southern Mexico.