Santa Maria del Rio, San Luis Potosi

Santa Maria del Rio is one of the 58 municipalities that make up the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. The municipality is located in the southern part of the state, approximately 48 kilometers east of the city of San Luis Potosí. Santa Maria del Rio has a land area of 1,655 square kilometers, with 37,290 inhabitants. As of 2005^[update], 12,000 were living in the town of Santa Maria del Rio. The area is famous for its rebozos, being the cradle of the blue and white rebozo de bolita. The Rebozo Caramelo is woven there.

Santa Maria del Rio is located in the center of the southern part of the San Luis Potosí, at an average altitude of 1,710 meters above sea level. The municipality is bordered on the north by the municipalities of Zaragoza, San Nicolás Tolentino and Ciudad Fernández, to the east is San Luis Potosí, to the south is Tierra Nueva and to the west is Villa de Reyes.

Santa Maria del Rio lies on the Mexican Mesa del Centro on the western edge of the Sierra Madre Oriental and consequently has a mountainous terrain, with various hills: the Membrillo, the Rincón Pilitas, the Duraznillo, San Pablo, the Platanito, San Antonio, the Banqueta, the Pachona, the Joya, the Mesa Prieta, the Barbechos, as well as the Sierra de Bagres. The area rests on Mesozoic rocks. The land is mainly used for livestock, forestry and agriculture, in that order.

The rocks in Santa Maria del Rio are mineral rich, and several mines have operated there. The locale is noted for its cinnabar, an ore of mercury.

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