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NIS Gazetteer Mexico

Central Intelligence Agency · 2025-08-25 · 757 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is the National Intelligence Survey Gazetteer for Mexico, published by the Central Intelligence Agency in March 1956 and prepared by the Office of Geography, Department of the Interior. It contains about 53,000 entries for places and features in Mexico. It gives official standard names approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names along with unapproved variant names, and lists coordinates, feature designations and map references. It is marked for official use only and has no UFO content.

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

SPRG	spring(s)	TERR	territory
STAT	state	UPLD	upland, plateau
STR	strait	VAL	valley
STRM	stream	VOLC	volcano
SWMP	swamp	WELL	well

Latitude and longitude.--Coordinates, in the third and fourth columns, are for finding purposes only. They were read to the nearest minute, but for some areas accurate maps are not available so locations cannot be exact.

Administrative division. The number in the fifth column, 702, is the area number assigned to Mexico.

Locational reference.--The number in the last column indicates a map where the feature may be located by its standard name or a recognizable variant of its standard name, as follows:

01 Carta de la República Mexicana, Comité Coordinador del Levantamiento de la Republica Mexicana, Tacubaya, D.F., Mexico, 1949; scale 1:500,000.

02 Carta General de la República Mexicana, Secretaría de Agricultura y Fomento, Tacubaya, D.F., Mexico, 1929-45; scale 1:500,000.

The code 00 is used for cross-references and for standard names to be found only on references other than those listed above.

## Glossary of generic terms

The following terms occur in the standard names listed in the gazetteer. Each of the meanings given applies in the case of one or more of the names.

aguada sinkhole, lake

altiplanicie

arrecife(s)

arroyo arroyo, stream

bahía bay, cove, sound

bajo shoal

banco(s) bank(s)

barra bar, entrance to lagoon

barranca stream

barrial mire

boca(s) cove(s), bight, river mouth, entrance to lagoon, strait, channel

bolsón inland basin

boquilla stream mouth, stream

brazo bay

bufa mountain

cabeza headland, shoal

cabo cape

caleta cove

cañada stream

canal canal, channel, strait

cañón canyon, ravine, stream

castillo fort

cayo(s) key(s), island(s), shoal

cenote sinkhole

cerrito(s) mountain(s)

cerro mountain, hill

charco pond

ciénaga, ciénega swamp

cordón mountains

crestón mountains

cuchilla(s) mountain(s)

cuesta ridge, mountains

cuevas caverns

cumbre(s) mountain(s)

derramadero stream

desierto desert

embarcadero landing

empalme railroad station

ensenada bay, cove

escollos rocks

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 757 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.