Mazatlán

The Pacific port of Mazatlán, Sinaloa state, north-central Mexico. Known as the ‘Pearl of the Pacific,’ Mexico's largest Pacific port is also a popular resort. The city lies on a peninsula overlooking Atlas Bay on the Gulf of California. In addition to tourism, the area supports abundant fishing, and serves as the major link between Baja California and mainland Mexico.

Town and seaport in the south of the state of Sinaloa, situated on the west coast of Mexico on a peninsula at the foot of the Sierra Madre; population (1995) 357,600. It is Mexico's largest Pacific port, and lies 240 km/149 mi southeast of Culiacán. Mazatlán is the main industrial and commercial centre in the west of Mexico. Industries include cotton textile spinning and weaving, sugar refining, fishing, and distilling.

A port of call for international shipping lines, Mazatlán handles a considerable import-export trade in tobacco and bananas. The town is popular as a tourist resort, because of its warm winters and the beauty of the local coastline, which has many offshore islands. The Nogales-Mazatlán seaway was completed in 1992, making Mazatlán the only Mexican beach resort within a day's drive of the US border.

The town was founded in 1531, and has a 17th-century opera house, the Teatro Peralta, which has been restored.