Baja California

Capital - Other Cities and Attractions

Baja California (literally 'lower California' in Spanish) is the northernmost state of Mexico. It is sometimes informally referred to as Baja California Norte to distinguish it from the Baja California peninsula, of which it forms the northern half, and Baja California Sur, which forms the southern half of the peninsula.

Baja California Sur; Coat of Arms Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the Territory of Baja California Norte. It has an area of 71,576 km2 (about 3.57% of the land mass of Mexico. The state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Sonora and the Sea of Cortez or Gulf of California, and on the south by Baja California Sur. Its northern limit is the US - Mexico border, adjacent to the US state of California.

The state has a population of 2,750,000 (2003 estimate), much more than the sparsely populated Baja California Sur to the south. Over 75% of the population lives in the capital city, Mexicali, or the most populous city in the state, Tijuana. Both these cities are close to the US border. Other important cities include Ensenada, San Felipe, and Playas de Rosarito and Tecate.

Baja California is not entirely Mestizo (Spanish and American Indian), the population includes small numbers of other European, east Asian, Middle Eastern and African descent.

The state's inhabitants are known as 'Cachanillas', after the wild cachanilla plant which has a fresh aroma and was used by the original inhabitants to make huts. The first Mestizo colonies used these materials with dried mud. Originally, the term 'Cachanillas' was applied only to the inhabitants of the Mexicali Valley, although there are tales of the term being used for inhabitants of Santa Rosalía in Baja California Sur. Author Antonio Valdéz Herrera's work 'Puro Canchanilla' (Pure Canchanilla) has made use of the term more common.

The climate of Baja California is hot and dry, but the state's geographical location, to the north of the Tropic of Cancer, gives it a well defined winter. In the northeast, the climate is semi-desert, with very high temperatures in the summer and at the beginning of fall. The winter is rainy, but not extremely so. To the northwest, from the U.S. border to San Quintin Bay, the climate is mild with hot summers. The winter is rainy with prevailing westerly winds.

In the San Pedro Martir Mountains, the highest area of the state, the climate is mild in the summer and cold in the winter, with snow in the area of the astronomic observatory.

In the desert and sandy zones to the south of Rosarito, the climate is very dry, extremely hot in summer, and the large temperature difference between day and night.