Geography of Mesoamerica

Geographically, Mesoamerica is located between the Sinaloa River valley in northern Mexico and the Gulf of Fonseca south of El Salvador; it encompasses most of present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras, where great differences in altitude and rainfall result in numerous distinct climatic and ecological zones. Mesoamerica is culturally divided into two parts: central Mexico roughly west and north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the Maya region to the east and south.

Central Mexico is dominated by the southern Mexican Plateau, an upland area extending from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec north toward the United States border. The region is temperate highland savanna flanked by mountain systems on three sides. It includes historically important areas like the Basin of Mexico and the Puebla region. On the west, it is bordered by the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental which parallels the Gulf of California. South the Sierra Madre del Sur covers most of the modern Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca and is home to the large Valley of Oaxaca. To the east, the plateau ends in the temperate Veracruz region of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The tropical, coastal plain that makes up much of the rest of Veracruz extends south along the Gulf of Mexico, crosses through Tabasco, and abuts the base of the Yucatán Peninsula. The rainforest lowlands continue and the Maya area includes parts of the Mexican state of Chiapas, the adjoining Petén department of Guatemala, most of Belize, and the Caribbean coast of Honduras. To the north of the humid tropics, the Yucatán Peninsula is primarily flat limestone tableland. The mountainous Pacific side, with its geologically recent volcanoes, is rugged and temperate, and the immediately adjoining Pacific plain, which runs narrowly along the coast of Guatemala, Chiapas, and El Salvador, is hot and humid.