LEON, or LEON DE

See also:

• LAS

LAS ALDAMAS  , a city of the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, 209 M . N.W. of the federal capital and 30 M . W. by N. of the city of Guanajuato . Pop . (1895) 90,978; (1900) 62,623, Leon ranking fourth in the latter year among the cities of Mexico . The Mexican Central gives it railway connexion with the national capital and other prominent cities of the Republic . Leon stands in a fertile plain on the banks of the Turbio, a tributary of the Rio Grande de Lerma, at an elevation of 5862 ft. above sea-level and in the midst of very attractive surroundings . The country about Leon is considered to be one of the richest cereal-producing districts of Mexico . The city itself is subject to disastrous floods, sometimes leading to loss of life as well ascathedral and a theatre, the latter one of the largest and finest in the republic . The city is regularly built, with wide streets and numerous shady parks and gardens . It manufactures saddlery and other leather work, gold and silver embroideries, cotton and woollen goods, especially rebozos (long shawls), soap and cutlery . There are also tanneries and flour mills .

The city has a considerable

trade in wheat and flour . The first settlement of Leon occurred in 1552, but its formal foundation was in 1576, and it did not reach the dignity of a city until 1836 . damage to property, as in the great flood of 1889 .