Información General |
On the high central plateau, in cities like Mexico City and Guadalajara, the weather is mild throughout the year, though a little cooler from December through to March. The wettest months on the plateau are the summer months, where there will typically be an hour of two of rain per day. Inland, northern Mexico is mostly desert, hot in the day, and cold in the night. In southern Mexico, the mountainous regions blow hot and cold with pleasant climates lower down. Baja California, Mexico's pacific peninsula gets very little rain throughout the year. Winters are comfortable, and summers are very hot, though resorts like Cabo San Lucas benefit from a sea breeze. The country's central pacific coast, home to resorts such as Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco is hot, sunny and humid almost throughout the year, but the coast and comfortable climate, but in the late summer months, heavy rains come with the hurricanes. The beach resorts of the Yucatán Peninsula, including Cancún, enjoy similar summers to Acapulco, but suffer even more from hurricanes.
The peso is the currency of Mexico. The symbol used for the peso is "$", basically the same as for the US dollar since the dollar derived its logo from the Spanish-Mexican currency. It is one of the top most traded currencies in the world. The current ISO 4217 code for the peso is MXN; prior to the 1993 revaluation (see below), the code "MXP" was used. The peso is subdivided into 100 centavos, represented by "¢". The name peso also means "weight" in Spanish. The name was originally used in reference to pesos oro (gold weights) or pesos plata (silver weights).
Mexico is located at about 23° N and 102° W in the southern portion of North America.. It is also located in a region known as Middle America. Almost all of Mexico lies in the North American Plate, with small parts of the Baja California peninsula on the Pacific and Cocos Plates. Geophysically, some geographers include the territory east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (around 12% of the total) within Central America. Geopolitically, however, Mexico is considered part of North America.
Mexico's total area is 1,972,550 km², making it the world's 14th largest country by total area, and includes approximately 6,000 km² of islands in the Pacific Ocean (including the remote Guadalupe Island and the Revillagigedo Islands), Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of California. On its north, Mexico shares a 3,141 km border with the United States. The meandering Río Bravo del Norte (known as the Rio Grande in the United States) defines the border from Ciudad Juárez east to the Gulf of Mexico. A series of natural and artificial markers delineate the United States-Mexican border west from Ciudad Juárez to the Pacific Ocean. On its south, Mexico shares an 871 km border with Guatemala and a 251 km border with Belize.
The history of Mexico begins perhaps as much as 30,000 years ago. Sometime during the last ice age nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers from Asia first crossed the Bering Strait and entered the Western Hemisphere. (There is is now an alternative theory that peoples also landed in the South Americas from both Africa and the Pacific Islands and gradually moved north into the North American continent). Following the seasonal supply of wild grains and game, they eventually migrated into the region separating North and South America dubbed by archaeologists as Mesoamerica. With its diverse geography and extraordinary natural abundance, this land gave rise to the development of early civilizations unique in the world.
Pre-Hispanic Mexico
The earliest phase of Mexico's colorful history is generally broken down into four periods:
ARCHAIC, up to 1500 BC
PRE-CLASSIC or FORMATIVE, 1500 BC-300 AD
CLASSIC, 300-900 AD
POST-CLASSIC, 900-1521 AD
The first traces of human life found in Mexico date back to about 20,000 BC. Social organization and rudimentary agriculture developed gradually, with the cultivation of squashes, chili peppers, beans and maize beginning perhaps as early as 6500 BC. As the food supply stabilized, the early hunter-gatherers grew more sedentary. Permanent settlements seem to have first appeared in coastal areas around 1500 BC, marking the beginning of a succession of highly developed and eventually interdependent cultures that would continue to 1500 AD.
The various civilizations of Mesoamerica are distinguished from others elsewhere in the New World by a variety of common cultural developments including hieroglyphic writing, commerce and trade, an extensive knowledge of astronomy, a highly accurate calendar system, and fascinating religious beliefs featuring a complex pantheon, a ritualistic ball game, and human and animal sacrifices.
1 Jan New Year's Day.
4 Feb Constitution Day.
17 Mar Birthday of Benito Juárez.
9 Apr* Maundy Thursday.
10 Mar* Good Friday.
1 May Labour Day.
5 May* Anniversary of Battle of Puebla.
16 Sep Independence Day.
12 Oct* Día de la Raza (Columbus Day).
2 Nov* Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
17 Nov Anniversary of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
12 Dec* Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
25 Dec Christmas Day.
(a) Holidays marked * are optional public holidays. This means they are not compulsory but are often granted. (b) In addition there are many local holidays. For details, contact the Mexican Tourism Board. (c) Holidays falling at the weekend are not celebrated on the previous or following weekday.
Mexico is a city with a dense population. Mexico ranks 11th in term of population in the world. Seventy percent of the total population of Mexico resides in the urban cities of Mexico. Population around Mexico City is near about 20 milllion, which ranks the city among some of the most densely populated area in the world.
According to the survey conducted in July 2006, the population of Mexico is estimated around 107,449,525. The highest structure in population is observed between the age group of 15-64. Population growth rate has been estimated at 1.16% in the year 2006. Birth rate has been 20.69 per 1000 and death rate has been 4.74 per 1000.
The urban centres and the border areas experiences a high density population. A high density of population is also noted along the border of Mexico and the US, because of industrialization in the cities and proximity of developed centers around the border line of Mexico and US. The border cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez are among the places that have a high density population and Guadalajara, Monterrey and Puebla are among the urban centres that has experienced a rapid growth in the population. The density of population has seen a sharp rise much because of the migration that has taken place from places like Argentina, Peru, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela and parts of Central America. An interesting and important fact to be noticed while working on the population of Mexico is that Mexico City ranks first among the city where Americans are residing abroad.
The population of Mexico comprises mainly of people following “Roman Catholic” as their religion. The rest of the population being protestant christian and jews. The majority of the population speaks Spanish.