Mexico Valley
The Valley of Mexico or the Basin of Mexico and the Mexico Basin ( Spanish : Valle de México or Valle del Anáhuac ) is a plateau in the center of Mexico , located at an altitude of about 2000 meters, without drainage . It houses Mexico City, the capital of the country, and the Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México, one of the largest metropolitan regions in the world.
The plateau is bounded to the west, south and east by mountains, including the famous twin volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl . To the west of the Valley of Mexico lies the Toluca Valley , to the east of it the Puebla Valley , and to the south the Río Balsas system . Towards the north the climate becomes drier and the vegetation is steppe-like.
In the middle of the valley was Lake Texcoco, with no outflow , which was fed by springs from the south and therefore became increasingly salty towards the north. On an island in the middle of the lake was the city of Tenochtitlán , on its shores many other important cities of the pre-Columbian period such as Texcoco , Tlacopán or the venerable Colhuacán . The lake was almost completely drained as part of the expansion of Mexico City .
The closedness of the valley on three sides, frequent inversion weather conditions and the associated low air circulation near the ground also explain why Mexico City is constantly struggling with smog .
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Coordinates: 19 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ N , 98 ° 52 ′ 0 ″ W.