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, 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, with an altitude of . It is located north of

Maldonado Department The Maldonado Department (; ), with an area of and 212,951 inhabitants (2023), is located to the southeast of Uruguay. Its capital is Maldonado, Uruguay, Maldonado. Geography Neighbouring departments are Rocha Department, Rocha to the East, Lav ...

, in the municipality of Aiguá, in a hill range named Sierra Carapé, which constitutes part of a larger range named Cuchilla Grande. 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 (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 pC, 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 t ...

time, crosses the Maldonado Department from west to east and enters the

Rocha Department Rocha () is a Departments of Uruguay, department in the east of Uruguay. Its capital is the city of Rocha, Uruguay, Rocha. It borders Maldonado Department to its west, Lavalleja Department to its northwest, Treinta y Tres Department to its north, ...

. It constitutes the border between the departments of

Lavalleja Lavalleja (; ) is a Departments of Uruguay, department of Uruguay. Its capital is Minas, Uruguay, Minas. It is located in the southeast of the country, bordered to the north by the department of Treinta y Tres Department, Treinta y Tres to the ea ...

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 A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

and gneissic.

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 and marcela predominate.

Climate

The climate in this locality is oceanic (described by the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

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

summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

s and chilly to cool

winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar 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. Dif ...

s (with frequent frosts). Strong winds are a common occurrence. The

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is evenly distributed throughout the year and

snow Snow consists of 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 througho ...

falls are uncommon.

Sources

Cerro Catedral
Site of the Municipality of Maldonado, Uruguay.

References

External links

Cerro Catedral Cerro Catedral is a mountain located from San Carlos de Bariloche, and inside the Nahuel Huapí National Park, in Patagonia, Argentina. The complex is one of the most important ski resorts in South America and the Southern Hemisphere, with a ...

Highest points of countries {{Highest points of South America