Sierra Madre Occidental Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through Northwestern and Western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica. The Spanish name "sierra madre" means "mother mountains" and "occidental" means "western" in English, with these being the "Western Mother Mountains". To the east, from the Spanish "oriental" meaning
Place names in China is often translated, while the rest of the name is not. The class identifier in Chinese is placed at the end, in English with the exceptions of mountains and lakes the identifier is placed at the end too. For names of lakes and mountains "X Lake" / "Lake X" and "X Mountain" / "Mount X" both is used. Some mountain ranges like Tian Shan are referred to English by the Chinese name. "Tian" means sky or heaven and "Shan" means mountain(s), so Tian Shan literally translates as the "Heaven Mountains". E = English, C = Chinese, P = Pinyin Chinese