page_title: Geography of Mesoamerica
section_title: Highlands
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Mesoamerica / Physiography / Highlands
caption_attribution_description: English: Jaguar (Panthera onca) Français&#160;: Un Jaguar (Panthera onca)
context_page_description: The geography of Mesoamerica describes the geographic features of Mesoamerica, a culture area in the Americas inhabited by complex indigenous pre-Columbian cultures exhibiting a suite of shared and common cultural characteristics. Several well-known Mesoamerican cultures include the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya, the Aztec and the Purépecha. Mesoamerica is often subdivided in a number of ways. One common method, albeit a broad and general classification, is to distinguish between the highlands and lowlands. Another way is to subdivide the region into sub-areas that generally correlate to either culture areas or specific physiographic regions.
context_section_description: The highlands of Mesoamerica generally contain two separate regions: the mountainous zone of central and western Mexico, and the highlands of Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas.  The topography, climate, and soil fertility of the highlands can vary dramatically.  In central and western Mexico, the most fertile soil is found among the low-lying valleys.  Several of these, including the Valley of Oaxaca, Puebla-Tlaxcala, and the Valley of Mexico (now Mexico City), were historically important locations where complex pre-Columbian societies developed. The tall mountainous peaks of the Sierra Madres, however, impedes the movement of clouds and reduces the amount of rainfall the region receives.  Indeed, the hot arid valleys of the Mixtec area and in the state of Guerrero are among two of the driest areas in the highlands.
  Initial hypotheses concerning environmental conditions postulated that the highland climate was more hospitable in the past.  More recent research has made it clear that the climate past was not very different from that of today, even though the ecosystems do show a significant degree of decline due to human activity. Many parts of the highlands show evidence of early deforestation, and various species have disappeared from their former habitats.
  The highlands of Mesoamerica, while not extraordinarily rich, Were sufficiently fertile to allow the development of the high agricultural cultures of ancient, pre-Hispanic times.  In fact, the situation was quite similar to that of other regions of the world where early civilizations thrived, as in the north of Peru, or in the valley of the Indus River in Asia.  In these sites, as in Mesoamerica, humans developed methods in which the limited available resources could be fully exploited.  Highland agrarian cultures learned to store water or divert it from its sources in the mountains to the cultivable lands.  One of the most well-known adaptations was the use of chinampas, or artificial islands upon which plants could be cultivated. Chinampas were originally used by the Purépechas in western Guerrero and by the Aztec in the Valley of Mexico.  Several chinampas still survive in Xochimilco.
  The lowlands, however, offered a great variety of usable flora and fauna resources.  These included resources that could not only be consumed in lieu of full-scale agriculture, but also traded to obtain other goods.  Furthermore, the greater accessibility of the coast facilitated transportation, interregional communication, and trade.
caption: The jaguar, common throughout southeast Mesoamerica, was symbolic to many pre-Columbian groups.
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