Ancient cultures and fascinating landscapes: deserts, plains, high mountains, and boundless expanses reminiscent of scenes from Western movies. This is New Mexico, the fifth largest state in the USA, located in the southwest of America between Texas and Arizona, with a shared border with Mexico. Almost as large as Germany, the state has only 2.2 million inhabitants. "Land of Enchantment" is what the locals call their home, New Mexico: the "Land of Enchantment." The rugged semi-desert state truly enchants with cities like Taos or Santa Fe and natural wonders like the snow-white dunes of White Sands National Monument or the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a cave system of superlatives, and also offers plenty of outdoor activities such as horseback riding, climbing, fishing, or skiing.

Whether ancient Pueblos, churches filled with sacred art, genuine cowboys, legendary bandits, or delicious enchiladas with fiery chili, New Mexico exudes a distinct flair of otherness compared to the rest of America and boasts numerous attractions. The largest city in the state, Albuquerque on the Rio Grande, with just 500,000 inhabitants, is characterized by its Hispanics, who have Latin American-Spanish roots. They speak a "New Mexican" Spanish that has mixed with Native American and English words. But don't worry, you can also get by here with English, as the world language, along with Spanish, is the second official language. Those who do not arrive by plane will certainly use the legendary Route 66, which runs as Interstate 40 through Albuquerque. The city is undergoing a transformation and is increasingly becoming a trendy meeting place with galleries, boutiques, bars, and restaurants. Here, you can taste New Mexico's culinary qualities for the first time: even the burger with red and green chili sauce, known as Christmas-style, gives a glimpse of the exotic delicacies served here. Albuquerque was inhabited by Native American tribes as early as the 12th century, and in the 16th century, the Spanish occupied the city. The Old Town was founded in 1706 by Spanish settlers and is worth a visit today because of its last remaining historic adobe buildings. Albuquerque's modern architecture pays homage to the indigenous Pueblo culture: even skyscrapers are often built in tiered form with rounded corners, their facades radiating in natural rust and clay colors. If you visit Albuquerque in October, you must not miss the Balloon Fiesta – hundreds of colorful hot air balloons rise into the sky. For a good view at eye level with the balloons, head to the 3000-meter-high Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque's local mountain, which is easily accessible by cable car.

Instead of rushing from Albuquerque to Santa Fe via the highway, there's the "unhurried" alternative of reaching the capital of New Mexico via the "Turquoise Trail"; a scenic road that winds through mountains, picturesque villages, and abandoned ghost towns with former gold mines. Founded in 1610, Santa Fe is considered the oldest city in the USA and the undisputed cultural center of the country. Fairy-tale adobe buildings, Native American jewelry markets, over 200 art galleries, charming hotels, and exquisite cuisine make Santa Fe a special urban adventure. Even in the heart of the city, the charming adobe style has prevailed. Adobe is not only an ancient building material made of crushed straw, water, and clay but also an architectural ideology. Almost the entire historic center is composed of buildings in the traditional style of the ancient Pueblos, characterized by rounded corners, edges, and protruding load-bearing beams. This is the case with the Governor's Palace or the San Miguel Chapel, in front of which typically Indian turquoise jewelry is sold. The Museum of Arts is filled with artworks - in addition to a significant collection of Georgia O'Keeffe works, the house focuses on drawings, sculptures, and photographs of regional artists from the Southwest. More works by Georgia O'Keeffe, one of America's most important artists, can be found in the museum of the same name.

For fans of adobe buildings, an hour and a half north of the capital, Pueblo de Taos beckons, an artist colony and a stronghold of alternative lifestyles, known for its historic Pueblo - the stone-carved living caves and Pueblo architecture are considered unique here. Nearby, in winter, the superb Taos Ski Valley attracts with its ski lifts that take skiers to dizzying heights of over 3000 meters.

New Mexico offers between the Chihuahua Desert to the south and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the north, the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range, natural wonders and significant cultural sites on every mile. About 60 kilometers northwest of Santa Fe lies Bandelier National Monument in an area of rugged canyons and high plateaus. The Pueblo Trail leads to cave dwellings with hewn walls and engraved rock drawings. With rangers, visitors can hike the breathtaking Tyuonyi Overlook Trail and learn all about plants, animals, and Pueblos.

For those more interested in the past of the Native Americans residing here, the Chaco Cultural National Historical Park, located northwest of Albuquerque, in the Chaco Canyon, is a sacred place of the Pueblo peoples. It was and still is a place for ceremonies. The ruins of the ancient Pueblos testify to the highly developed culture of the First Nations, who very early applied their knowledge of astronomy and geometry to their constructions. The historical park houses the largest collection of ruins of the ancient Pueblo culture in the United States, dating from 900 to 1150 AD, who lived here. Not far from the canyon and north of Farmington is the also worth seeing Aztec Ruins National Monument. The ancient dwellings are among the best-preserved Anasazi Pueblos in the Southwest. The accurately built stone buildings were erected around the year 1100 during the height of the culture of the Anasazi Indians.

After so much culture, it's time for nature. And there's no shortage of it in New Mexico either. Thirty kilometers southwest of Santa Fe lies Cochiti Pueblo, whose residents benefit from the reservoir of the same name and allow for various recreational activities. For those interested in extraordinary rock formations, not far from the village, the Cone-shaped Hat Trail in the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument beckons. In a sort of basin, rocks of light ochre gather, resembling cone-shaped hats and stemming from volcanic activities. Their charm is best discovered on the Canyon Trail.

For those heading towards Arizona, a stop at the Bisti Badlands is a must. A landscape that seems otherworldly. The name comes not only from the impressive rock formations scattered throughout the landscape - the word "bisti" comes from the Navajo Indian language and means "among the clay formations". The desolate landscape is traversed by peculiar wave-like "mushrooms" of colorful sandstone and shale. Water and moisture have eroded the softer layer of rock over time, resulting in huge "hoodoos", towering, narrow rock columns, and small labyrinths of strangely shaped stone. Although the area seems destined for the filming of science fiction movies, it has not often been used as a film set. Only in 1977 was the thriller "Awe in Fear" filmed here.

Equally impressive sights await in the southeast of the state, where the highly captivating and photogenic White Sands National Monument is located. Here, a side road winds through the world's largest gypsum desert, covering 780 square kilometers, a unique landscape consisting of snow-white dunes where even yucca palms and desert grasses grow. The granular gypsum was formed by sediment deposits from a sea that disappeared millions of years ago, as there was no outflow of water here. Along the 10 km long spur road, the National Park Service sets up covered picnic tables: temperatures can soar to over 40 degrees Celsius in summer.

On the way to New Mexico's only national park, the magnificent stalactite formations of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, you pass through Alamogordo to Cloudcroft, from where you traverse a varied mountain landscape dotted with cacti to the territory of the Mescalero Apaches, the horse racing center of Ruidoso, and to Lincoln, the home of the Western legend Billy the Kid.

Among New Mexico's most significant natural monuments, in addition to the white gypsum dunes of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, is a powerful underground realm of stalagmites and stalactites, one of the most beautiful cave systems in the United States. Modern elevator installations, capable of transporting up to 1400 people per hour, take visitors into the moist, consistently 13-degree cool world of shadows at a depth of 250 meters. There, it's not so much the temperature change that takes your breath away as it is the enchanting splendor of the underworld. The 2 km standard route leads to the Hall of Giants, so named because of two stalagmites, 20 and 13 meters high. From there, the Big Room offers the best of the Carlsbad Caverns. The dimensions of this immense hall only become truly understandable when you walk a little on the dimly lit paths. The Big Room measures 550 meters long, 335 meters wide, and 78 meters high, providing space for several football fields as well as the full size of the Washington Capitol.

For those who don't like elevators, it's possible to explore the fairy-tale world on foot, but it takes longer to access the caves. On summer late afternoons, curious onlookers and nature lovers gather at this entrance for a special spectacle. A black cloud consisting of approximately 400,000 bats emerges every evening from the cave as if on cue to hunt for insects.

Nature meets culture - that's New Mexico, in a nutshell.