The Mexican Plateau, in its magnificent dimensions and material wealth, stood among the first and perhaps most alluring discoveries of European explorers. Buried deeper in the verbal histories of a now vanquished people, the American Indians, must be the primordial human awareness of the inverted complex triangle that dominates the Mexican topography, climate and biota. It always has been viewed by man as a source of wealth and a center of authority. The plateau is the pillar upon which all Mexican conquerors have erected their capitols, tilled their crops and mined for their treasure, and from which they dispersed the forces of their authority. Ironically, the same size and diversity that give the plateau its value, also make it an immense barrier. Its broad desert and three to five thousand meter high crests constitute severe obstacles in the path of North American man.

Authors and Affiliations

1. California State College, Dominguez Hills, USA

   David Morafka Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Biology)

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© 1977 Dr. W. Junk bv, Publishers, The Hague

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