A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike plateau, whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term mesa applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as tablelands.
Guangnan County is under the jurisdiction of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, located in the southeast of Yunnan Province, in the northeast of Wenshan Prefecture, at the junction of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces (regions). Guangnan County, adjacent to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, is located at the junction of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces (regions). It is bounded by Funing County in the east, Xichou County and Malipo County in the south, Qiubei County and Yanshan County in the west, Xilin County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region and Xingyi City in Guizhou Province in the north. By the end of 2017, Guangnan County had jurisdiction over 18 townships and 2 state-owned farms with a total population of 808100. Guangnan County won the honorary title of "2018 e-commerce into rural comprehensive demonstration county" and other honorary titles. In March 2019, it was on the list of the first batch of revolutionary cultural relics protection and utilization districts and counties.