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.
Ying County is located in the north of Shanxi Province and east of Shuozhou City. It covers an area of 1667 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 3 towns and 9 townships with a population of 300000 (2012). The county government is stationed in Jincheng. The plan of the county is parallelogram between 112 °58 east longitude and 113 °37 east longitude and 39 °17 east longitude and 39 °45 'north latitude. It is adjacent to Hunyuan County to the east, Shanyin County to Pingshuo to the west, Huairen County to the north, Fanzhi County and Dai County to the south. It is a continental climate in the north temperate zone, affected by the monsoon, with four distinct seasons, with an average annual temperature of about 7 ℃ and annual rainfall of 360mm. The first frost period is in late September and the frost-free period is 100 to 140 days. There are world-famous wooden pagodas in the north of Yingxian County. Yingxian wooden Pagoda is also called Buddha Palace Temple Sakyamuni Pagoda. Together with the Eiffel Tower and the leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, it is called the three strange towers in the world. twenty