ACAPULCO INFORMATION
Acapulco (Officially known as Acapulco de Juárez) is a city, and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 300 kilometres (190 mi) southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay. It is a port of call for shipping and cruising lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States. As of the 2005 census, the population of the urbanized area was 616,394, while that of the administrative municipality was 717,766 people. The municipality, which has an area of 1,882.6 square kilometres (726.9 sq mi), includes numerous small localities outside of the city. The tourist resort city of Acapulco is the largest city in the state, far larger than the state capital Chilpancingo.
The town was built on a narrow strip of low ground, scarcely half a mile (800 m) wide, between the shoreline and the lofty mountains that encircle the bay to the north and east. Access to the town from inland is through the mountains via a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) tunnel that was constructed in the 1990s. A passage through the mountains, called Abra de San Nicolas, has been constructed, and it allows cooling sea breezes to reach the city.
Archeological evidence shows that Acapulco has been inhabited since before 3000 BC. The first vestiges of human presence consist of figures and pottery made of clay, stone, and ceramic. The pieces found in the coastal region of Puerto Marqués are the earliest known ceramics from Mexico, and they could be the oldest in Mesoamerica.
Cave paintings from 1200 BC and petroglyphs have been discovered on Pie de la Cuesta. They indicate the early presence of fishing settlements, with agriculture and hunting as secondary activities. In a mountainside near Palma Sola, situated in the Veladero National Park, calendaric beads and 18 giant granite stones engraved with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and geometrical details have been found. They were created between 200 BC and AD 600. During this period, nomadic tribes from the northeast of Mexico entered what is now the state of Guerrero. Evidence of their presence has been found near the city.
The first reference to Acapulco in the history of the Viceroyalty of New Spain was made as early as 1519, by Bernal Díaz del Castillo in his "Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva España" (True History of the Conquest of New Spain). Spanish captain Hernán Cortés sent several expeditionary groups to the Mexican Pacific coasts in order to find a new commercial route towards Asia. |
