Geography
San Luis Potosí covers 61,138 km² and is landlocked, but it crosses three of Mexico's major landscapes in about 300 km. Official statistics and local usage divide it into four regions. The Altiplano, the western half, is high desert at 1,800–2,000 m, part of the Chihuahuan Desert, with salt flats, yucca and creosote and less than 400 mm of rain a year; the Sierra de Catorce rises out of it to about 3,200 m, the highest ground in the state, and holds the silver town of Real de Catorce, reached through a 2.3 km mine tunnel. The Centro is the basin around the capital, at 1,860 m.
The Zona Media, east of the capital around Rioverde, is a transition belt of low ranges and irrigated valleys fed by karst springs; the Media Luna spring there discharges clear water at a constant 30 °C. Beyond it the Sierra Madre Oriental drops steeply, in places more than 1,500 m in a few kilometres, into the Huasteca Potosina, a humid tropical lowland with more than 2,000 mm of rain in its wettest parts. The Santa María and Verde rivers meet there to form the Tampaón, which joins the Pánuco and reaches the Gulf; the Tamul waterfall on that system drops about 105 m. The Sótano de las Golondrinas, near Aquismón, is a pit cave about 370 m deep.
Silver founded the state. The capital was established in 1592 after ore was found at Cerro de San Pedro, and Real de Catorce, opened in 1778, was for a time one of the richest silver camps in New Spain; both declined when the deposits and then the currency failed in the early twentieth century. Part of the northern Altiplano, around Cerro Quemado, is Wirikuta, the desert the Wixárika (Huichol) people walk to each year from Nayarit and Jalisco — a route of more than 400 km that Mexico protects as a sacred natural site.
Main cities
| City | Population (2020) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| San Luis Potosí | 911,908 | Capital; UNESCO-listed colonial centre, car plants |
| Soledad de Graciano Sánchez | 342,320 | Adjoining municipality; part of the same metro area |
| Ciudad Valles | 176,935 | Main town of the Huasteca Potosina |
| Matehuala | 102,000 | Altiplano; base for Real de Catorce |
| Tamazunchale | 97,000 | Southern Huasteca, on Highway 85 |
| Rioverde | 92,000 | Zona Media; Media Luna spring |
| Villa de Reyes | 54,000 | Industrial park and power station south of the capital |
| Xilitla | 51,000 | Cloud-forest town; Las Pozas garden |
| Ciudad Fernández | 45,000 | Twin town of Rioverde |
Figures are 2020 municipal populations from the INEGI census, rounded for the smaller places. The capital and Soledad de Graciano Sánchez form a metropolitan area of about 1.2 million, roughly two-fifths of everyone in the state, and the centre of an automotive and appliance manufacturing cluster built up since the 1990s.
Neighbouring states
San Luis Potosí borders nine states, more than any other. Clockwise from the north: a short stretch of Coahuila at its north-western tip, then Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to the north-east, Veracruz and Hidalgo along the Huasteca in the east and south-east, Querétaro and Guanajuato to the south, and Jalisco and Zacatecas to the west. The awkward shape is a legacy of colonial mining jurisdictions rather than of any single river or range.
Getting there
Ponciano Arriaga International (SLP), 17 km north of the capital, has flights to Mexico City, Monterrey, Cancún and several US cities including Dallas and Houston. Tamuín (TSL), in the Huasteca, handles limited regional traffic. Many visitors to the Huasteca instead fly to Tampico (TAM) in Tamaulipas, about 130 km from Ciudad Valles.
Federal Highway 57 is the main artery, running Mexico City–Querétaro–San Luis Potosí–Matehuala–Saltillo and on to the border at Piedras Negras; it carries much of Mexico's road freight to the United States. Highway 70 crosses the state west to east, from Aguascalientes through the capital and Rioverde to Ciudad Valles and Tampico. Highway 85 climbs the eastern sierra from Pachuca through Tamazunchale to Ciudad Valles, and Highway 80 links the capital to Guadalajara. Mexico City to San Luis Potosí is about 420 km, roughly 5 hours by toll road. See the road map and the airports map.
Questions about San Luis Potosí
Where is San Luis Potosí on the map of Mexico?
In north-central Mexico, between the central plateau and the Gulf lowlands. The capital sits about 420 km north of Mexico City on Federal Highway 57, the main road from the capital to the Texas border.
Does San Luis Potosí have a coast?
No. The state is landlocked, although its eastern edge comes within about 100 km of the Gulf of Mexico at Tampico, and its rivers drain there through the Pánuco system.
What is the Huasteca Potosina?
The tropical south-east quarter of the state, around Ciudad Valles and Xilitla. It is known for turquoise rivers and waterfalls — Tamul, Micos, Puente de Dios — the Sótano de las Golondrinas cave, and the surrealist garden Edward James built at Xilitla.
How many states border San Luis Potosí?
Nine, more than any other Mexican state: Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Zacatecas.
What is the best time to visit San Luis Potosí?
October to April for the desert and the capital, when days are mild and dry. The Huasteca's rivers run highest and bluest from about November to March; the rains fall from June to September.