Geography of Durango

The state of Durango extends across 123,181 square kilometers, which represent 6,3% of the total area of the country. It shares its borders with the states of Chihuahua to the north, Coahuila de Zaragoza and Zacatecas to the east, Nayarit to the south and Sinaloa to the west.

Its natural beauty comes from the geographic diversity of the local territory which includes the west flank of the Sierra Madre Occidental with its great canyons and thick forests; a section of the vast desert called the Bolson de Mapimi at the north; and the sierras and plains with extensive pasturelands of the Mesa del Centro at the east.

The main peaks within its geography are the Cerro Gordo, Cerro Barajas, Sierra el Epazote, Cerro Panfilo, Cerro El Tascate, Cerro el Oso and Cerro los Altares, all of them rising above 3,000 meters over sea level.

Up in the Sierra or mountain range, climate is tempered and sub-humid, with abundant rainfall that nourishes the extensive pine and oak forests that cover the mountains, and that represent 46% of the surface of the state. Up north in the Mapimi desert, climate is of course hot and dry or semi-dry, and it is home to species typical to that kind of ecosystem such as the brickellia, the prickly-pear, the wild lettuce, the maguey and the cassie or huisache. On the other hand, the central and eastern plains report a dry and semi-hot or semi-dry and temperate climate, and are occupied by grazing lands for cattle or have been transformed for the agricultural activity.

The most representative animals in the area include deer, wolf, bear and owl in the forests; Mapimi turtle, snakes and scorpion in the desert; and coyote, fox and crow
in the valleys.

 

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