Desierto de los Leones National Park
Desierto de los Leones National Park
|
||
The former Carmelite monastery |
||
location | Mexico city | |
surface | 15.29 km² | |
WDPA ID | 5372 | |
Geographical location | 19 ° 15 ′ N , 99 ° 20 ′ W | |
|
||
Setup date | November 27, 1917 | |
Framework plan | PROGRAMA DE CONSERVACIÓN Y MANEJO PARQUE NACIONAL DESIERTO DE LOS LEONES ( Memento of July 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) |
The Desierto de los Leones National Park (Spanish Parque Nacional Desierto de los Leones ), Desierto de los Leones ("Lion Desert") for short , is a national park in the Federal District of México (capital district or federal district) in Mexico . The park is 1,866 hectares and is located about 20 km southwest of the historic city center of Mexico City on the road to Toluca at about 3000 m above sea level in the area of the municipalities (Delegaciónes) Cuajimalpa de Morelos and Álvaro Obregón .
history
The area was declared a national park by President Venustiano Carranza in 1917 . It is the first area in Mexico to be given this status. A nature reserve was set up there as early as 1876 to protect the springs in the park that supplied Mexico City with water.
In the middle of the park is a former Carmelite monastery, the Ex Convento del Carmen , which was built in 1606 by the architect Andrés de Segura (1577–1652), better known by his religious name Fray Andrés de San Miguel, and is still largely preserved . The park with the monastery, which is an example of colonial architecture, is both a magnet for tourists and a destination for the residents of the capital.
Today the national park ( IUCN category II ) is under the administration of the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) .
Flora and fauna
The most important species in the park's forest, which consists mainly of pines and firs, are the sacred fir (Abies religiosa) and Pinus hartwegii . There is a wide variety of mushrooms in the area with over 100 registered species. Live on animals there including the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) , the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) , the Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) , the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) , the Mexican cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus cunicularius) , the raccoon (Procyon lotor) and the coyote (Canis latrans) .
Literature and web links
- Eduardo Báez Macías: Obras de Fray Andrés de San Miguel. Introducción, notas y versión paleográfica de ... Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas . México 1969.
swell
- ^ Desierto de los Leones | Protected Planet. Retrieved July 13, 2017 .