Mesa

Mesa (Spanish, “table”), used in the western and southwestern United States for a steep-sided, flat-topped hill or isolated tableland, such as Mesa Encantada (Enchanted Mesa) in New Mexico and Mesa Verde (Green Mesa) in Colorado. Often red or yellow, mesas were long ago part of much larger plateaus of softer rock that were gradually worn down. The mesas escaped erosion because they were capped by hard rock layers protecting the softer strata below.