Mexico's industrial capital — where the Sierra Madre rises behind a city of 5 million that gave the world CEMEX and the glass bottle, and still makes the best roasted goat in the country
Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo León and Mexico's second economic engine, with a metropolitan population of 5 million at 538m elevation between the Sierra Madre Oriental peaks and the Cerro de la Silla (1,820m). The most industrialised and wealthiest city in Mexico — home to CEMEX (the world's largest building materials company), FEMSA (Heineken Mexico/OXXO), and Banorte — it developed a distinct regiomontano identity separate from central Mexico's colonial model. The Barrio Antiguo and Macroplaza (one of the world's largest city plazas at 40 hectares) anchor the historic centre.
Monterrey was founded in 1596 as Ciudad Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de Monterrey — the third attempt by Spanish colonists to establish a permanent settlement in Nuevo León after disease and Indigenous resistance wiped out two earlier settlements. During the Mexican-American War, the Battle of Monterrey (21–24 September 1846) saw American General Zachary Taylor take the city after three days of urban combat; the resulting armistice became a political controversy in Washington. The city's industrial transformation accelerated after 1890 with the Cuauhtémoc Brewery (still producing Carta Bla…