• 28 features
  • Checked September 2026

Mountain Map of Mexico

Tap any range, river or sea for its name and one fact, then press Quiz me.

Mountain Map of Mexico

Name Date

Tap any feature to read, rename or leave it out

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
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Write the name of each numbered feature.Answer key

  1. Sierra Madre Occidental
  2. Sierra Madre Oriental
  3. Mexican Plateau
  4. Sierra Madre del Sur
  5. Sierra Madre de Chiapas
  6. Baja California Peninsula
  7. Yucatán Peninsula
  8. Sonoran Desert
  9. Chihuahuan Desert
  10. Isthmus of Tehuantepec
  11. Pacific Ocean
  12. Gulf of Mexico
  13. Gulf of California
  14. Bay of Campeche
  15. Caribbean Sea
  16. Gulf of Tehuantepec
  17. Lake Chapala
  18. Rio Grande
  19. Conchos River
  20. Yaqui River
  21. Fuerte River
  22. Santiago River
  23. Lerma River
  24. Balsas River
  25. Pánuco River
  26. Papaloapan River
  27. Grijalva River
  28. Usumacinta River

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each feature is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a feature is answered.

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Mountains and the high plateau 5

  1. Sierra Madre Occidental Western Mother Range: runs northwest to southeast beside the Gulf of California.
  2. Sierra Madre Oriental Runs about 1,000 km south from the Rio Grande to Puebla.
  3. Mexican Plateau Averages 1,825 m above sea level; Spanish name Altiplano Mexicano.
  4. Sierra Madre del Sur Highest point: Cerro Nube, 3,720 m, in southern Oaxaca.
  5. Sierra Madre de Chiapas Continues across Guatemala to El Salvador and Honduras.

Deserts, peninsulas and the isthmus 5

  1. Baja California Peninsula 1,247 km long, from Mexicali to Cabo San Lucas.
  2. Yucatán Peninsula Low limestone land parting Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
  3. Sonoran Desert Home of the saguaro cactus; reaches into Arizona and California.
  4. Chihuahuan Desert Mostly in Mexico; reaches into Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
  5. Isthmus of Tehuantepec Shortest land crossing, Gulf of Mexico to Pacific.

Gulfs, seas and Lake Chapala 7

  1. Pacific Ocean Faces Mexico's whole west and south coast.
  2. Gulf of Mexico About 1,500 km wide; bounded by Mexico, the United States and Cuba.
  3. Gulf of California Also called the Sea of Cortés; over 3,000 m deep in places.
  4. Bay of Campeche Named by Spanish explorers in 1517.
  5. Caribbean Sea Meets the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatán Channel.
  6. Gulf of Tehuantepec A gale wind called the Tehuano blows out over it.
  7. Lake Chapala Mexico's largest freshwater lake, 45 km southeast of Guadalajara.

Rivers 11

  1. Rio Grande Called the Río Bravo in Mexico; 3,051 km long.
  2. Conchos River The Rio Grande's largest tributary, in Chihuahua.
  3. Yaqui River Sonora's largest river system; it waters the Yaqui Valley farms.
  4. Fuerte River Its dam holds back Sinaloa's largest reservoir.
  5. Santiago River Leaves Lake Chapala and drops over 1,700 m to the Pacific.
  6. Lerma River Rises above 3,000 m and flows into Lake Chapala.
  7. Balsas River Carries more water than any other river on Mexico's Pacific side.
  8. Pánuco River Mexico's fourth-largest river by the water it carries.
  9. Papaloapan River Nahuatl for river of the butterflies.
  10. Grijalva River Rises in Guatemala and runs through Sumidero Canyon.
  11. Usumacinta River With the Grijalva, it carries the most water of any Mexican river.

How this list was compiled: Names and outlines: Natural Earth 5.1.2 physical layers (credited under the drawing). Every detail line was read in the English Wikipedia article linked from its item and checked 2026-09-24. Rivers and Lake Chapala were checked a second time against Mexico's national water agency, CONAGUA, Estadísticas del Agua en México 2019, tables 2.6 to 2.8 (river runoff, basin area and length) and section Principales lagos de México (Lake Chapala the largest inland lake), https://files.conagua.gob.mx/conagua/publicaciones/Publicaciones/EAM_2019.pdf, read 2026-09-24. The runoff ranks in the detail lines (Grijalva-Usumacinta first, Pánuco fourth, Balsas first on the Pacific side) are CONAGUA's; the Pánuco rank is also Wikipedia's. The range facts rest on Wikipedia and the Natural Earth outlines only. Lengths given are Wikipedia's; CONAGUA measures only the Mexican part of a river and gives other figures, so no CONAGUA length is printed. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_geography_regions_polys (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_geography_regions_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_rivers_lake_centerlines (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_rivers_lake_centerlines.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 23°N 102°W. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This mountain map of Mexico labels 28 physical features: the four Sierra Madre ranges and the high plateau between them, two deserts, two peninsulas and the isthmus, 11 rivers, Lake Chapala and six seas.

Read the full guide

Mountains first, then three more rounds

The quiz starts with the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Mexican Plateau between them, then the Sierra Madre del Sur and de Chiapas in the south. Deserts and coasts, gulfs and seas, and the 11 rivers follow. Lake Chapala is answered at its numbered ring.

Where rivers cross the ranges

Five rivers cut through mountains, and a tap on a river line counts for the river. To find a range, tap its shading away from the lines.

  • Occidental means western and Oriental eastern; del Sur is the southern range.
  • The Lerma flows into Lake Chapala, and the Santiago flows out of it to the Pacific.

Questions and answers

What are the main mountain ranges in Mexico?

The Sierra Madre Occidental in the west, the Sierra Madre Oriental in the east, the Sierra Madre del Sur along the southern Pacific coast, and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt across the middle. The map data has no outline for the volcanic belt.

What is the Mexican Plateau?

The high, dry land between the Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental, about 1,825 meters above sea level on average. It runs from the United States border south to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, and holds most of the Chihuahuan Desert.

What is the longest river in Mexico?

The Rio Grande, called the Río Bravo in Mexico, at 3,051 kilometers, though much of it lies in the United States or along the border. Mexico's water agency, CONAGUA, names the Bravo and the Grijalva-Usumacinta as the country's longest rivers.

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