Monterrey map

Layout of Monterrey

Monterrey lies at about 540 m in a bowl of mountains: the Sierra Madre Oriental closes the south and west, the Cerro de la Silla stands to the east at roughly 1,820 m, the Cerro de las Mitras to the west and the Cerro del Topo Chico to the north. The Río Santa Catarina, dry for most of the year, runs east–west through the middle and separates the old city from the wealthier ground to the south; it has flooded severely, most recently in Hurricane Alex in 2010.

The centro histórico is organised around the Macroplaza, a chain of squares cut through the old grid between 1980 and 1984 and covering about 40 hectares — among the largest civic spaces in the world. The Palacio de Gobierno closes the north end, the city hall the south, and the cathedral, begun in 1600 and finished in the 18th century, stands on the east side beside the contemporary art museum MARCO. The Faro del Comercio, a 70 m orange slab by Luis Barragán completed in 1984, sweeps a green laser over the square at night. East of it, the Barrio Antiguo keeps the low colonial streets and most of the bars. The Paseo Santa Lucía, an artificial canal opened in 2007, runs 2.5 km from the Macroplaza to Parque Fundidora.

General Mariano Escobedo International (MTY) is about 24 km north-east in Apodaca and is one of the four busiest airports in Mexico, with direct flights to some twenty US cities; Del Norte (NTR) handles general aviation. The central de autobuses is on Avenida Colón north of the Macroplaza, on the Metrorrey light rail, which has run since 1991 and now works three lines. Highway 85D runs north to the border, 40D west to Saltillo and east to Reynosa.

Distances from Monterrey

Municipalities and neighbourhoods

Almost nothing that matters in Monterrey stays inside the city limits. San Pedro Garza García, across the Santa Catarina to the south-west, is the highest-income municipality in Mexico and holds the Valle Oriente office and hotel district under the mountain wall. Guadalupe, to the east under the Cerro de la Silla, and San Nicolás de los Garza, to the north, are each home to more than half a million people. Apodaca and General Escobedo hold the airport and much of the newer industry, Santa Catarina the western factories, and García and Juárez the housing built on the edges since 2000. Together the twelve or so municipalities counted about 5.3 million residents in 2020, against 1,142,994 in Monterrey proper and 5,784,442 in the state of Nuevo León.

The city was founded in 1596, at the third attempt, and stayed small until the railway reached the US border in the 1880s. Heavy industry followed: the Cuauhtémoc brewery in 1890, the Fundidora steelworks in 1900, glass and then cement works soon after. The Fundidora closed in 1986 and its 114-hectare site is now a public park, with a blast furnace kept as the Horno3 museum. The Tec de Monterrey, founded in 1943 by local industrialists, and the state university are the reason the metropolitan area produces a large share of Mexico's engineers.

Mountains around the city

Cumbres de Monterrey National Park wraps the south and west of the built-up area and covers about 177,000 hectares of limestone ridge and canyon. Chipinque, reached by road from San Pedro, is the closest section, with trails and a view down the whole valley. Santiago, a hill town 35 km south beside the Presa de la Boca reservoir, is the way to the Cola de Caballo waterfall, and the Grutas de García, 40 km north-west, are limestone caverns reached by cable car. El Potrero Chico, near Hidalgo, is one of the best-known sport-climbing walls in the Americas. The Sierra Madre map and the northern Mexico map set the ranges in context, and the border map shows the four Tamaulipas crossings that Monterrey traffic uses.

Questions about Monterrey

Where is Monterrey on the map of Mexico?

In the north-east, at the point where the Sierra Madre Oriental opens onto the Gulf coastal plain, 220 km south of the Texas border at Nuevo Laredo and about 920 km north of Mexico City. It is the capital of Nuevo León and sits at only about 540 m.

How big is Monterrey?

The municipality had 1,142,994 people in the 2020 census, but the city runs across a dozen municipalities: the metropolitan area counted about 5.3 million, making it Mexico's third-largest after the Valley of Mexico and Guadalajara.

What is the Cerro de la Silla?

The saddle-shaped ridge east of the city, rising to about 1,820 m, split into four peaks by the notch that gives it the name. It is the emblem of Monterrey, appears on the Nuevo León coat of arms, and is climbed on foot from Guadalupe in half a day.

Is Monterrey safe to visit?

Nuevo León has for several years carried a mid-range US State Department advisory, lower than most northern border states, with the cautions aimed at outlying areas rather than the business and museum districts. Check the current State Department advisory before you travel.