Pico de Orizaba

Pico de Orizaba is Mexico's tallest mountain and North America's highest volcano, rising 5,636 meters on the border of Veracruz and Puebla states, about 110 kilometers west of the Gulf of Mexico and 200 kilometers east of Mexico City. Known in Nahuatl as Citlaltepetl, or Star Mountain, for a snow-covered summit visible for hundreds of kilometers, it anchors the southeastern end of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and ranks third among North American peaks after Denali and Mount Logan. The volcano is dormant but not extinct, last erupting in 1846, and is considered the second most prominent volcanic peak in the world after Mount Kilimanjaro. Its slopes carry several glaciers, including Mexico's largest, the Gran Glaciar Norte, and support both alpine and tropical ecosystems across the mountain's dramatic elevation range.