Sierra Negra - Overview

Overview

The summit of Sierra Negra is the site for one of the world's premier astronomical instruments, the Large Millimeter Telescope. The service road for this project is claimed to be the highest road in North America. A part of the telescope facility is visible as a white dot in the first picture below and more clearly in the second picture.

The name Sierra Negra is confusing, because a 'Sierra' is usually a mountain range rather than a single peak, and there is a Sierra often called the Sierra Negra which lies to the south of this peak, along the border of the states of Puebla and Veracruz. However, it is the name that occurs on the official INEGI maps and is the one that is most commonly used by English speakers to refer to the mountain. The Nahuatl names "Tliltepetl" or "Atlitzin" are attached to it by some, though they have also been used for other mountains in the area. Speakers of Orizaba Nahuatl call the mountain Istaktepetl Ikni 'the White Mountain's Sibling' (the Pico de Orizaba being the White Mountain).