Sandia Mountains
mountain range to the east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
The Sandia Mountains (Southern Tiwa: Posu gai hoo-oo, Eastern Keres: Tsepe, Navajo: Dził Nááyisí, Tewa: Oekuu Pʼin, Northern Tiwa: Kep’íanenemą, Jemez: Kiutawe, Zuni: Chibiya Yalanne) is a mountain range located in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, immediately to the east of the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico in the southwestern United States. The mountain range is just due south of the southern terminus of the Rocky Mountains, and is part of the Sandia–Manzano Mountains. This is largely within the Cibola National Forest and protected as the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. The highest point is Sandia Crest, 10,678 feet (3,255 m) AMSL.
Etymology
Sandía means watermelon in Spanish, and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset. Also, when viewed from the west, the profile of the mountains is a long ridge, with a thin zone of green conifers near the top, suggesting the "rind" of the watermelon. However, as Robert Julyan notes, "the most likely explanation is the one believed by the Sandia Indians: the Spaniards, when they encountered the Pueblo in 1540, called it Sandia, because they thought the squash gourds growing there were watermelons, and the name Sandia soon was transferred to the mountains east of the pueblo."
In Southern Tiwa, Posu gai hoo-oo means where water slides down arroyo. Sandia Pueblo Indians, who are Tiwa speakers, sometimes call the mountain Bien Mur, "big mountain". In Tewa, Oekuu Pʼin (pronounced [òːkùː pʼìŋ]) means "turtle mountain" (oekuu, "turtle"; pʼin, "mountain"). The Sandias are mentioned in pueblo mythology as a sacred mountain of the South of the Tewa.
Layout and neighboring ranges
The Sandia range is small and a part of the Basin and Range Province.
The public source identifies “Sandia Mountains” as mountain range to the east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sandia, Mountains and mountain.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1476263. The Library of Congress control number is sh85117234. Authority coordinates are 35.209, -106.447. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1540.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sandia Mountains” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.