GUANAJUATO, or Santa Fe de Guanajuato, a city of Mexico, capital of the state of Guanajuato, is situated in 21° 0' 50" N. lat. and 100° 54' 27" W. long., at a height of 7200 feet above the sea. Built as it is at the meetingplace of three mountain gorges, and obliged by lack of space to climb the underfalls of the surrounding heights, Guanajuato has a highly picturesque appearance. The houses of the lower town are four or five stories in height, most of the streets are narrow and tortuous, and the principal is small though beautiful. The cathedral, the Jesuit church, the mint dating from 1812, the new theatre built in 1874, the university, and the gymnasium are worthy of mention. The Alhondiga de Granaditas, originally a corn magazine, was occupied as a fort in the War of Independence, and acquired peculiar interest as the spot where the patriot Hidalgo met his death. Guanajuato, founded in 1554, owed its existence and prosperity to the fact that it is the centre of the greatest silver-mining district in the world. Of the individual mines perhaps the most famous is the Valenciana, with a shaft 2000 feet deep, which is in process of being cleared of the water by which it has long been flooded. The population, which includes a considerable number of foreigners, formerly amounted to 100,000, but in 1869 was only 63,500.