Just a few hours by road from the colossal and dizzying metropolis that is Mexico City, Comarca Minera of Hidalgo reveals itself to the traveler who calmly enters its spaces, where culture, history, and tradition take root to a unique geological past. This unique territory, which includes the capital of the state of Hidalgo, the city of Pachuca, and eight surrounding municipalities, was declared a UNESCO World Geopark in 2017.

In an area of less than two thousand square kilometers, the Comarca Minera geopark displays an extraordinary landscape and climatic diversity, reflecting a complex orography. This is, in turn, the visible result of a succession of geological events that began in the Cretaceous period, and which for at least twenty-five million years is dominated by volcanic phenomena of different nature. This volcanic complexity, although extinct, fascinates by a profusion of outcrops that combine aesthetics and scientific interest. And as the effect of hydrothermal phenomena closely linked to volcanism, the territory of the geopark treasures an unparalleled mineral richness. If there is one thing that makes this geopark a special place, it is its mineral deposits, exceptionally rich in silver, which are among the largest in the world. It is estimated that, on their own, the silver-bearing mineralizations of the Mining Region have contributed to six percent of the world's historical production of silver, which in round numbers would amount to forty thousand tons of precious metal! In what was formerly called Tlahulilpan, which then gave rise to the Mining District of Pachuca–Real del Monte and which today is a geopark, human activity has been linked to mining – because it could not have been otherwise!

Nearly five centuries of feverish and intense mining shape not only landscapes and villages; they also leave an indelible legacy in popular culture and gastronomy. While much of the mining works are hidden underground – there are an estimated three thousand kilometers of wells and galleries – there is an outstanding mining industrial heritage that is worth visiting and admired. The mining constructions of the late nineteenth century stand out, as they constitute one of the best examples in the world of Cornish architecture outside the distant county of Cornwall, in the southeast of Britain, from which came the mining migrants who came to Hidalgo. Some of this heritage is being rescued and valued through the "Mining Archaeological Route" project.

Mining, in addition to being the historical economic engine of the Mining Region, attracted visits from scientists, artists and adventurers, thus sparking an exchange of human, cultural and technological values. One of the most renowned was the Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), who between 1803 and 1804 toured and described the places of what is now the geopark. Special attention was deserved the place known as Basáltic Rocks and waterfall of Regla, which today is popularly known as the Basálticos Prisms and stands as the emblematic geosite of the Hidalguense geopark. In addition to studying them and comparing them with other columnar basalts, such as those of the famous Scotland Giants' Causeway, Humboldt took the site's studies and documentary data to the highest scientific discussions of the time. Following in the footsteps of ancient scientists and adventurers, the twenty-first-century visitor can tour the surprising Mining Shire of Hidalgo to uncover the secrets of preterite volcanic calamities, fabulous silver mines and old legends of the Miners.