At a glance

Tehuacán-Cuicatlán (the most precisely Tehuacán single 294 cactus species 83 endemic columnar cacti Pachycereus diversity Western Hemisphere dryland UNESCO heritage: the natural significance of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley (a rain shadow valley between the Sierra Madre del Sur and the Sierra Madre Oriental; annual rainfall 300-500mm; one of the driest places in Mexico): the valley holds the most biodiverse dryland ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere: 294 species of cactus (83 found nowhere else on Earth; a higher count than the entire Sonoran Desert or the Atacama); the giant columnar cacti (Pachycereus weberi; up to 12m tall; 100+ years old; the forest of columns creates one of the most extraordinary botanical landscapes anywhere in the Americas; the cacti produce edible fruit (used by indigenous communities for millennia)); the valley is also a major center of agave diversity (25 species of agave; the source of pulque, mezcal, and fiber (ixtle) for pre-Hispanic cultures) — the most precisely Tehuacán single 294 cactus species 83 endemic columnar cacti Pachycereus diversity Western Hemisphere dryland UNESCO heritage in any UNESCO world heritage site; the agriculture (the most precisely Tehuacán single maize corn domestication 5000 BCE Coxcatlán Cave Richard MacNeish archaeological origin prehispanic Tehuacán heritage: the archaeological significance of Tehuacán: the MacNeish excavations (Richard MacNeish; excavations in the valley 1960-1964 CE; the Coxcatlán Cave sequence) produced the earliest evidence in the Americas of the domestication of maize (corn) (approximately 5,000-3,500 BCE; the wild teosinte (Zea mexicana) was selectively cultivated in the Tehuacán Valley by the earliest Mesoamerican agricultural communities; the domesticated maize of Tehuacán is the ancestor of all corn grown worldwide)) — the most precisely Tehuacán single maize corn domestication 5000 BCE Coxcatlán Cave Richard MacNeish archaeological origin prehispanic Tehuacán heritage in any UNESCO world heritage site)).