: ''For the mountain in Argentina, see

Cerro Catedral Cerro Catedral is a mountain located from San Carlos de Bariloche, and inside the Nahuel Huapí National Park, in Patagonia, Argentina. The mountain is the biggest ski center in South America and in the Southern Hemisphere, with a skiable ...

.'' Cerro Catedral ("Cathedral Hill"), also known as Cerro Cordillera, is a peak and the highest point of

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, with an altitude of . It is located north of

Maldonado Department The Maldonado Department ( es, Departamento de Maldonado; ), with an area of and 164,300 inhabitants (2011), is located to the southeast of Uruguay. Its capital is Maldonado. Geography and climate Neighbouring departments are Rocha to the Eas ...

, in the municipality of

Aiguá Aiguá () is a city of the Maldonado Department in Uruguay. Its name means ''running water'' in the Guaraní language. It is also the name of the municipality to which the city belongs. It includes the following zones: Aiguá, Sauce de Aiguá, Sar ...

, in a hill range named

Sierra Carapé Sierra Carapé or Sierra de Carapé is a hill range located in Maldonado Department, in southern Uruguay. The range crosses the Maldonado Department from west to east and enters the Rocha Department. Local demarcation It constitutes the borde ...

, which constitutes part of a larger range named

Cuchilla Grande Cuchilla Grande is a hill range that crosses the east part of Uruguay from north to south. It extends from the south part of Cerro Largo Department, through the departments of Treinta y Tres and Lavalleja and ends in Maldonado Department where it ...

. Its name derived from the curious forms of the rocky elevations of its summit, which are very common in the southern part of this country.

History

Until 1973,

Cerro de las Ánimas Cerro de las Ánimas ("Hill of the Souls", formerly known as ''Mirador Nacional'') is a peak and the second highest point of Uruguay, with an altitude of 501 metres (1,643.7 ft). Location and features It is located to the southwest of ...

(formerly known as ''Mirador Nacional''), with an elevation of , was considered the highest point of Uruguay. However, in that year, a group of scientists of the ''Servicio Geográfico Militar'' (''Military Geographic Service'') changed the measure of Cerro Catedral.

Geography

Location and geology

Sierra Carapé, formed in

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

time, crosses the Maldonado Department from west to east and enters the Rocha Department. It constitutes the border between the departments of

Lavalleja Lavalleja () is a department of Uruguay. Its capital is Minas. It is located in the southeast of the country, bordered to the north by the department of Treinta y Tres to the east with Rocha, to the south with Canelones and Maldonado, and to ...

and Maldonado. Cerro Catedral, or Cerro Cordillera, is situated in the region of Las Cañas, in the 8th Judicial Section and the 9th Police Section of the Maldonado Department. Near Cerro Catedral there are the source of José Ignacio Stream (''Arroyo José Ignacio''), which runs from north to south, and the source of Coronilla Stream (''Arroyo Coronilla''), running to the northwest, which drains into Aiguá. The hill is situated in an area of the range which its formation is mainly granitic and

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

ic.

Vegetation

In the highest areas of Cerro Catedral, the vegetation practically does not exist, with the sparse appearance of a shrub called Myrtus ugni between the rocks. Above the altitude of , tough grasses, xerophile vegetation,

Baccharis articulata ''Baccharis articulata'' is a species of shrub in the family Asteraceae. The species was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, but was later reclassified by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1807. The species is used for a variety of medical use ...

and marcela predominate.

Climate

The climate in this locality is oceanic (described by the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

as ''Cfb''), with mild to warm

summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

s and chilly to cool

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

s (with frequent

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a g ...

s). Strong winds are a common occurrence. The

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

is evenly distributed throughout the year and

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughou ...

falls are uncommon.

Sources

Cerro Catedral
Site of the Municipality of Maldonado, Uruguay.

References

External links

Highest points of countries {{Maldonado-geo-stub