Culiacan

The name derives from the Nahuatl colhua ("ancestor" or a tribal name) and the locative –cán ("place"), rendering "place of the Colhua". Some historians alternatively interpret it as "snake place" or "crooked hill". The most accepted theory is "place of the colhuas", or "inhabited by the colhua tribe", and the most frequent meaning is "place of worshiping the god Coltzin".

An ancient indigenous settlement called Huey Colhuacan dates back to Tecpatl, which corresponds to 628 CE. The Aztecs built it during their pilgrimage. Its exact location is unknown, but it is generally assumed that it was close to the current town of Culiacáncito. The city known today as Culiacán was co-founded in 1531 by conquistadors Lázaro de Cebreros and Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán under the name "Villa de San Miguel". Upon their arrival in the 16th century, the Spanish found that farmhouses were organized into indigenous nations by the tribe of the Tahues, which brought together people of the same origin and language with a common tradition. Other indigenous peoples that inhabited the original territory of Culiacán were the Tebacas, Pacaxes, Sabaibo, and Achires. After their conquest in 1531, de Cebreros and de Guzmán organized the acquired territories into three provinces. …

Culiacán is located in the central region of the State of Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico. The coordinates that correspond to it are 24 ° 48'15 "N (latitude) by 107 ° 25'52" W (West), with an altitude of 54 meters above sea level. The city is located 1,240 kilometres (770 mi) from Mexico City. From Culiacán to Tepic is only 502 km; to Durango, 536 km; to Hermosillo, 688 km; to Guadalajara, 708 km; to Monterrey, 1,118 km; to Chihuahua, 1,159 km; to Tijuana, 1,552 km; and to Matamoros, 1,434 km. The mountainous part and the coastal plain clearly define the municipality's relief. The mountainous part corresponds to the physiographic region of the highlands, part of the Pacific slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range with elevations of 300 to 2,100 meters above sea level. …

Culiacán's economy is mainly agricultural and commercial. It is a trade center for produce, meat, and fish. Among other industries, Culiacán accounts for 32 percent of the state's economy. Coppel, Casa Ley, Homex, and other companies of national importance are headquartered in Culiacán.

The Terminal de Autobuses de Culiacán or Central de Autobuses Culiacán Millennium is a bus terminal located west of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. As of 2024, Culiacán has just over 68 urban transport routes that serve about 1 million users. The Culiacán urban transport is operated by RedPlus. The city has a train station operated by Ferromex that is used only for freight. It is connected to Mazatlán to the south and to Guaymas to the north. Culiacán uses the "Millennium" International Bus Station ("Central Internacional de Autobuses "Millennium) to travel across Mexico and to the United States (Arizona and California). Though several high-speed roads have been built, most of the city's streets are rather narrow, and traffic jams are common during rush hour. There are 300,000 cars in Culiacán, making the per capita number of cars one of the highest in the country. …

The Municipality of Culiacán has a total population of 858,638 inhabitants, this according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). It has a population density of 166.8 inhabitants / km2, the Municipality concentrates 31% of the population in the State of Sinaloa, with 422,507 men and 436,131 women, with a ratio of 96.9 men for every 100 women. The city of Culiacán Rosales occupies only a part of the municipality of Culiacán and in 2010 had an urban area of 65 km2, being the largest in the state of Sinaloa and has a population of 675,773 inhabitants (of which 329,608 are men and 346,165 are women), according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census carried out by the (INEGI), resulting in a population density of 10,396.5 inhabitants/km2. concentrating 78.7% of the total urban population of the Municipality. …