Basic Geography

 

The United Mexican States or Mexico (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México) is a country located in North America, bordered by the United States to the north, and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. It is the northernmost and westernmost country in Latin America and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

Situated in the southwestern part of mainland North America and roughly triangular in shape, Mexico stretches more than 3000 km from northwest to southeast. Its width is varied, from more than 2000 km in the north and less than 220 km at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the south.

Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north, and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. Mexico is about one-fifth the size of the United States. Baja California in the west is an 1,250-km peninsula and forms the Gulf of California. In the east are the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, which is formed by Mexico's other peninsula, the Yucatán. The center of Mexico is a great, high plateau, open to the north, with mountain chains on the east and west and with ocean-front lowlands lying outside of them.

The terrain and climate vary from rocky deserts in the north to tropical rain forest in the south. Mexico's major rivers include the Río Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande) and the Río Usumacinta on its northern and southern borders, respectively, together with the Río Grijalva, the Río Balsas, the Río Pánuco, and the Río Yaqui in the interior.

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