Mesa Mesa Mesa (Spanish and Portuguese for "table") is the American English term for tableland, an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape. It may also be called a table hill, table-topped hill or table mountain. It is larger than a butte, which it otherwise resembles closely. It is a characteristic landform of arid environments, particularly the Western and Southwestern United States in badlands and mountainous regions ranging from Washington and California to the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, and Texas. Examples are also found
Upland (mountain range) partly (see brackets) in the historic Upland: The soils of the Upland are based mainly on Upper Devonian marl, agillaceous shale and calcareous sandstone. This combination has produced good soils for arable farming. As a result, the forests were cleared very early on and replaced by wood pasture (the East Sauerland "mountain heaths"). The highest mountain in the Upland is the Langenberg (), which is located immediately next to the border with neighbouring North-Rhine-Westphalia (and just on the Westphalian side). The almost equally high Hegekopf () lies opposite and entirely on Hessian territory. Since autumn 2002 the Ettelsberg () has