Querétaro, officially theFree and Sovereign State of Querétaro de Arteaga, is one of 31 states that, with theFederal District, compose the32 Federal Entitiesof Mexico. It is located inNorth-Central Mexico, in a region known asBajío.It is divided into18 municipalities. Its capital city isSantiago de Querétaro.
The state is one of the smallest in Mexico, but it is also one of the most heterogeneous geographically,with ecosystems varying from deserts totropical rainforest, especially in theSierra Gorda, which is filled with microecosystems. The area of the state was located on the northern edge ofMesoamerica, with both thePurépecha EmpireandAztec Empirehaving influence in the extreme south, but neither really dominated it. The area, especially the Sierra Gorda, had a number of small city-states, but by the time the Spanish arrived, these had all been abandoned, with only small agricultural villages and seminomadic peoples inhabiting the area.Spanish conquestwas focused on the establishment of theSantiago de Querétaro, which still dominates the state culturally, economically and educationally.