Circle Alignments on the Planet Washington, DC – Part 21 – San Luis Potosi, Mexico to Brownsville, Texas

In the last post, I followed the alignment from Colima, where it enters Mexico; through ancient ceremonial site of El Chanal, through the volcanic national park of Nevado de Colima; crossing over Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest freshwater lake; through Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco State; to Aguascalientes, the capital of Aguascalientes State.

I am picking up the alignment in San Luis Potosi, the capital of the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosi. It was named after King Louis IX of France, and the fabulously rich mines of Potosi in Bolivia.

It was a major gold and silver mining hub on the Camino Royal de Tierra Adentro, or the Royal Road of the Interior Land, with some of the richest silver mines in Mexico. It was a trade route during from the mid-16th to the 19th-centuries, between Mexico City, and San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico.

So, there was a flourishing trade network between Mesoamerica and the Rocky Mountains via this route connecting the people of the Valley of Mexico with those to the north…that took place well before Spanish colonial times.

Interestingly, there are some mighty sturdy stone bridges found along this historic route in Mexico…

…similar in appearance to this bridge in Lexington, Kentucky…

…this bridge in Gondar in Ethiopia…

…the Old Stirling Bridge in Scotland…

…and this bridge in Konjic, Bosnia.

This is the Arts Center of San Luis Potosi…

…compared with Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.

These are the El Salto Waterfalls on the El Salto River, which are now dry except for the rainy season because of a hydroelectric dam on the river, in El Naranjo in San Luis Potosi State, northeast of the city.

…compared with Havasupai Falls, in Arizona’s Grand Canyon…

…Luang Prabang falls in Laos…

…waterfalls in the Rummah Valley in Saudi Arabia…

…and in the Valley of the Blue Moon in Lijiang, China, in a lush valley of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

Next on the alignment is the Cascada el Salto, in Palmillas in Tamaulipas State…

…compared with the Ticino Caverns in Switzerland.

Victoria is the capital of the Mexican State of Tamaulipas.

It is in northeast Mexico, at the foot of the Sierra Madre Oriental, running 620 miles, or 1,000-kilometers, from the Rio Grande on the border between Coahuila State and Texas, to North Puebla State…

…where you find large, cut-and-shaped stones…

…and massive rock slopes. We see these as natural formations because we haven’t been taught about any other possibility.

This is the Pinacoteca Tamaulipas, a space now dedicated to preserving the pictorial heritage of Tamaulipas State. It is housed in the former “Casa Filizola,” said to have been built by three Italian brothers in 1884.

Compare the style of stone archways found here with this chapel in Scotland

Next on the alignment is Las Adjuntas…

…the name of one of the largest dams in Mexico, also known as the Vicente Guerrero dam…

…and under which lies the town of old Padilla.

Quite a bit of history has been covered up in this fashion, and not just here in Mexico.

On the way to Matamoros, Mexico, and the border with the United States, the alignment skirts the edge of the natural protected area of Laguna Madre y Delta del Rio Bravo.

It is very shallow, with an average depth of about 3-feet, or 1-meter.

It is one of the most important bird wintering habitats in Mexico.

We come to Matamoros, in the northeastern part of the State of Tamaulipas, on the southern bank of the Rio Grande River, directly across from Brownsville, Texas.

Olmecs are believed to have inhabited this part of Mexico at one time, the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. This is a colossal Olmec head.

Matamoros is a major historical site, and was the site of battles during the Mexican War of Independence, the Mexican Revolution, the Texas Revolution, the Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War.

Casa Mata in Matamoros was said to have been constructed in 1845, as one of a defensive line of forts there, and completed in 1875.

The Port of Matamoros, also known as the Port of Bagdad, was one of the leading commercial ports in the world during the American Civil War. It was booming as the only entrance port for mercenaries for the Confederacy, as well as being an international free trade zone as of 1858.

This is an historical photo of what was called the Plaza de Armas in Matamoros back in the day…

…and a more modern photo of the same plaza, only now called the Plaza Principal. I find it noteworthy that there is still an old stone archway standing here.

Next the alignment comes to Brownsville, Texas, on the western gulf coast in south Texas, and part of the Brownsville-Matamoros Conurbation, or continuous urban developed area.

It was said to have been founded in 1848 by American entrepreneur Charles Stillman…

…after he developed a successful riverboat company on the Rio Grande.

He named Brownsville after Major Jacob Brown, who fought and died in the Mexican-American War, which took place between 1846 and 1848.

Brownsville was the site of several key events during the American Civil War. The Battle of Brownsville involved the Union Army successfully disrupting blockade runners along the Gulf Coast in Texas.

The Battle of Palmito Ranch took place east of Brownsville, and is considered the final battle of the Civil War, as it took place on May 12th and May 13th of 1865, and after the Confederacy ceased to exist.

By the way, if you have been following my work, you know I talk about finding snaky, s-shaped river bends, like the Rio Grande depicted here, all over the world. I believe it is a signature of the ancient advanced civilization.

This the old Federal Courthouse in Brownsville, said to have been built in 1931. Not a lot of people or activity in this photo showing such a grand building.

It is now the Brownsville City Hall.

This arched and domed architecture is in downtown Brownsville…

…and this is Brownsville’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral, said to have been built in 1856.

How’d they build something like that in 1856, just a few years before the beginning of the American Civil War, at which time people were killing each other with muskets, bayonets, and cannon?

Definitely not the kinds of technologies that create sophisticated architecture like the Brownsville Cathedral.

I am going to end this post, and pick up the alignment at Port Isabel, on the Texas coast, in the next post.