Torreon

According to archaeological findings, the area of Torreón was populated around the 10th millennium BC. The first Spanish mission arrived in 1566, led by Fr. Pedro Espinareda. However, the city developed only in the independent Mexican era, around a Torreón ("Big Tower") built to monitor Río Nazas's floods, in conjunction with the creation of a railroad connecting to the US border city of El Paso, which gave an economic boom to the city and therefore a population boom as well. The population grew from 200 in 1892 to 34,000 in 1910. Torreón received city status in 1907. During the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), the city was taken more than once; the most prominent character ever to take the city was the revolutionary general Pancho Villa. It was also the location of the 1911 Torreón massacre, where 303 Chinese immigrants were killed by the revolutionaries over a ten-hour period. …

Torreón is near the southwest border of the state of Coahuila, within the Laguna region of the state. The border is delineated by the Nazas River that separates it from Gómez Palacio, Durango. The municipality covers 1,947.7 km2 (752.0 sq mi), including much of the rural area south of the city. The city's elevation is 1,120 m (3,670 ft), which is low for the Mexican interior. The terrain where the urban area is spread is generally flat, with somewhat prominent relief formations (up to 1,600 m (5,249 ft) south and southwest of the city, thus visible at well-nigh any given point in the city. Higher mountains, over 3,000 m (9,843 ft), are on the southern, mostly uninhabited section of the Municipality, the most prominent being El Picacho. The city features a desert climate (in the Köppen climate classification BWh). …

The area was originally a center for ranching. With irrigation the city became an important center for support for farming and processing of cotton. In the middle of the 20th century, it became an industrial city. The city has industries in textiles, clothing and metals processing. Some important industries and companies that have business here, like Peñoles, an important Mexican mining group, and Motores John Deere, Lala, an important dairy products company, Yura Corporation, stores like Soriana, Cimaco, Extra, among others.

Cristo de las Noas, at 21.80 m (71.5 ft), is the third tallest statue of Christ in Latin America, only smaller than the statue of Christ The Redeemer in Brazil and Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Situated on the top of a hill, this image of Jesus with extended arms symbolises protection for the inhabitants of Torreon. The hilltop has a Catholic church and offers a view of the entire city. There are also several shopping centers in the city, including Galerias Laguna, Plaza Cuatro Caminos, and Intermall. The "Canal de la Perla" (the Pearl Watercourse), an underground watercourse built in the 19th century to drive the Nazas' river water to the fields near the city, was re-discovered in 2003 and re-opened in 2014. It now passes under the oldest part of the city and it can be visited and walked through. It is also used for cultural and artistic exhibitions. …

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