New Mexico is filled with desert, grasslands and sparse juniper woodlands at lower elevations, with pine and fir forests at the higher elevations on the slopes of its northern mountains. Most cities of New Mexico can be found along the Rio Grande river. This river rises in the mountains of southern Colorado, and then flows south through New Mexico before it becomes the border between Texas and Mexico.
Northern New Mexico has been inhabited by native Americans for 10,000 years. The Pueblo culture, based around permanent settlements and farming of maize, beans and squash, developed between 1100 and 1300 A.D. in several narrow valleys with permanently flowing streams.
