Popocatepetl

Popocatepetl rises 17,802 feet in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, the second highest peak in Mexico and one of the most active volcanoes in North America. Its name means Smoking Mountain in Nahuatl, and it still earns it, venting ash and steam within sight of Mexico City, some 45 miles away. In Aztec legend the volcano is a warrior standing eternal watch over Iztaccihuatl, the sleeping woman, the dormant peak that faces it across the Paso de Cortes.

This map captures the clean geometry of a great stratovolcano. The contour lines form nearly concentric rings around the summit crater, tightening near the top where the cone steepens. Radiating outward, the lines break into the barrancas, the deep erosion gullies that channel meltwater and ash down every flank. At the northern edge of the print, the terrain rises again toward the long ridgeline of Iztaccihuatl, the two volcanoes paired on paper just as they are in the legend.