Aguascalientes map

Geography

Aguascalientes covers 5,616 km², making it the fourth-smallest state in Mexico after Mexico City, Tlaxcala and Morelos, and it is divided into just 11 municipalities, one of the lowest counts in the country. It sits on the southern edge of the Mexican Plateau at 1,800–2,000 m, in a wide basin drained by the Río San Pedro, which flows south to join the Río Verde and eventually the Lerma–Santiago system in Jalisco. The centre and east of the state are flat irrigated farmland — maize, chilli, guava around Calvillo, and vineyards planted for brandy — while the north-west rises into the Sierra Fría, a pine and oak range reaching about 3,050 m and protected as a state reserve.

The climate is semi-arid, with about 500 mm of rain a year falling almost entirely between June and September, and cool nights year-round at that altitude. Water is the constraint on everything here: the Presa Plutarco Elías Calles, completed in 1929, was one of the first large dams built by the post-revolutionary government and still feeds the irrigation district around Pabellón de Arteaga. The Spanish named the place for the thermal springs found in the valley, and the city was founded in 1575 as a garrison on the silver road between Zacatecas and Mexico City.

Main cities

Settlement in Aguascalientes is unusually concentrated. The capital and its neighbour Jesús María hold about 1.08 million people between them, three-quarters of the state total, and the built-up area now runs continuously north along MX-45 through San Francisco de los Romo. Everything else is a market town of under 60,000. Nissan opened its first Aguascalientes plant in 1982 and a second in 2013, and the COMPAS plant built with Daimler followed in 2017, which is why the northern corridor keeps absorbing population. Calvillo, 55 km west in a warmer valley, is the exception to the industrial pattern: it grows guava on a scale that supplies most of the national market and was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2012.

Neighbouring states

Aguascalientes is landlocked and has only two neighbours. Zacatecas wraps around it to the north, east and west; Jalisco runs along the short southern border, where the state drops towards Los Altos and the Lagos de Moreno plain. The territory was detached from Zacatecas in 1835 and confirmed as a separate state by the constitution of 1857, which is why the boundary is so tightly drawn. The state sits inside El Bajío, the industrial belt that runs east through Guanajuato and Querétaro.

Getting there

Aguascalientes has been a junction since the 1880s, when the Mexican Central Railway put its main repair shops here and made the city the country’s largest railway workshop; the yards still sit immediately west of the historic centre and the line to Ciudad Juárez runs through them. The modern road network follows the same axis.

Jesús Terán Peredo International (AGU) is about 25 km south of the city beside MX-45, with scheduled service to Mexico City, Tijuana, Monterrey and a handful of US cities; the larger Del Bajío airport (BJX) near León is 190 km south-east. Federal highway MX-45 is the spine of the state, running north to Zacatecas and south to Guanajuato and León, doubled for most of that distance by the MX-45D toll road. MX-70 heads west through Calvillo into Zacatecas. Mexico City is about 510 km away, roughly 6 hours by way of MX-45D and MX-57D through León and Querétaro; Guadalajara is 220 km and 2 hours 30 minutes, and Zacatecas 130 km and 1 hour 30 minutes. See the airports map and the road map. The Feria Nacional de San Marcos, three weeks of bullfights, concerts and cockfights each April, is the one period when flights and rooms in the city are hard to find.

Questions about Aguascalientes

Where is Aguascalientes on the map of Mexico?

In north-central Mexico, on the southern edge of the Mexican Plateau about 510 km north-west of Mexico City. It is an enclave almost surrounded by Zacatecas, touching Jalisco only along its short southern border.

How big is the state of Aguascalientes?

5,616 km², the fourth-smallest state after Mexico City, Tlaxcala and Morelos, with 1,425,607 people at the 2020 census. It is divided into just 11 municipalities, one of the lowest counts in the country.

What is Aguascalientes known for?

The Feria Nacional de San Marcos, held every April since 1828 and the largest fair in Mexico; the hot springs that gave the state its name; and car manufacturing — Nissan has built vehicles here since 1982.

How do you get to Aguascalientes?

Jesús Terán Peredo International (AGU) lies about 25 km south of the city, with flights to Mexico City and several US cities. By road it is 6 hours from Mexico City on the MX-45D and MX-57D toll roads and 2 hours 30 minutes from Guadalajara.