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.
Lufeng County is formed by the merger of Lufeng County (Jinshan Town), Luozi County (Bicheng Town), Guangtong County (Guangtong Town) and Yanxing County (Heijing Town). It is now under the jurisdiction of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. The county is located in the middle of Yunnan Province, adjacent to Anning City, Kunming City. Due to the discovery of the world's largest dinosaur fossils and Ramalopithecus fossils, Lufeng has been praised as "the hometown of dinosaurs", "fossil warehouse", "birthplace of Asian humans" and "natural museum" in academic circles. As of 2013, Lufeng County has a total area of 3536 square kilometers, a GDP of 12.8 billion yuan and a total population of 427000. Lufeng County has "World Dinosaur Valley", Heijing ancient town, Wutai Mountain and other tourist attractions.