부산대학교 도서관

[Estados Unidos Mexicanos] North American country. Situated at the southern tip of the continent between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, it is bordered by the USA to the north and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast. It is the third largest country in Latin America (area c. 1,972,500 sq. km) and is shaped somewhat like a funnel, wide along the USA border and narrowing towards the southeast (see fig.); the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest point just west of the Yucatan Peninsula, is a low-lying, tropical north–south corridor generally considered to mark the geological division between the continents of North and South America. Physically Mexico is dominated by mountain ranges, which mostly run parallel to the coastline. The northern ranges enclose high central plateaus occupying nearly 50% of Mexico’s total area; they comprise arid northern plains and the better irrigated, central Anahuac Plateau, which is the most densely populated region. The Transverse Volcanic Range, which crosses the center of the country and has several active volcanoes over 4500 m in height, encloses a number of high-altitude valleys and basins originally filled with lakes; these include the Basin of Mexico, site of the capital, Mexico City. Mexico is divided by the Tropic of Cancer; it has a temperate climate in the high plateaus and a hot, tropical climate in the narrow coastal plains and Yucatan Peninsula. Previously the site of several sophisticated indigenous cultures, notably the ...