— — a city the sierra keeps watch over.
“The capital of Nuevo León, held inside a bowl of the Sierra Madre Oriental, with Cerro de la Silla rising on the eastern edge. Industry below, limestone above. The summer afternoons run hot, and the storms come down off the ridge fast. By evening the lights come on along the Paseo Santa Lucía, and the city slows for a few hours.
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Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo León and the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico, with roughly 5.3 million people across its surrounding municipalities. It sits at about 538 metres of elevation in a valley of the Sierra Madre Oriental, ringed by Cerro de la Silla to the east and the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park to the west. Founded in 1596 by Diego de Montemayor, it grew into the country's industrial centre under the Garza Sada families in the late nineteenth century. The Santa Catarina River cuts the city east to west.
The Sierra Madre Oriental that frames the city is folded Cretaceous limestone, the same rock that gives Cerro de la Silla its four-peaked silhouette and the cliffs of La Huasteca their pale grey faces. Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, established in 1939 and expanded in 2000 to about 177,000 hectares, protects most of the surrounding range. The limestone weathers into deep canyons and slot rivers — Matacanes, Hidrofobia, Chipitín — that climbers and canyoneers from across the country come to walk in the rainy season.
The Macroplaza in the centro is one of the largest civic squares in the world, covering about 40 hectares, with the Catedral Metropolitana and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey along its edges. The Paseo Santa Lucía, a 2.5-kilometre artificial canal opened in 2007, links the plaza to Parque Fundidora, the Compañía Fundidora de Fierro y Acero steelworks converted into a public park in 2001. Summers run hot, often above 35°C; winter and early spring are the easiest seasons. The international airport is fifteen minutes from the centro.