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.
Liaocheng, a prefecture-level city of Shandong Province, is located in the west of Shandong Province, facing Zhangwei River and Handan City and Xingtai City of Hebei Province in the west, Jindi River in the south and southeast, Jining City, Tai'an City, Jinan City and Henan Province in the south and southeast, and Dezhou City in the north and northeast. It lies between 115o 16km east longitude and 116km east longitude and 37o 02m north latitude, 114km east-west and 138km north-south, with a total area of 8715 square kilometers. More than 6000 years ago, Liaocheng had the ancient city of Dawenkou culture, which successively created prehistoric culture, canal culture, red culture and so on. Liaocheng is a national historical and cultural city, with more than 2700 places of interest and historic sites and more than 470 scenic spots with tourism development value. National key cultural relics protection units