Nevado de Toluca

Nevado de Toluca is a stratovolcano in central Mexico, located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It is the fourth highest of Mexico’s peaks, after Pico de Orizaba, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. The volcano and the area around it is now a national park.

The volcano has a 1.5-kilometre (0.93 mi) wide summit caldera which is open to the east. The highest summit, the 4,680-metre (15,354 ft) Pico del Fraile (Friar’s Peak), is on the southwest side of the crater and the second highest, the 4,640-metre (15,223 ft) Pico del Aguila (Eagle’s Peak), is on the northwest.

There are two crater lakes on the floor of the basin at about 4,200 m (13,800 ft), the larger Lago del Sol (Sun Lake) and the smaller, but deeper, Lago de la Luna (Moon Lake). A road formerly ran into the caldera to the lakes, but is now gated 2 km before the lakes.From the southeast, Nevado de Toluca looks flat-topped, like shoulders without a head. A Nahuatl legend (recounted as part of the legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl) provides a mythical explanation.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia