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.
Zibo, a prefecture-level city of Shandong Province, is located in East China and central Shandong Province, latitude 35 °55 °20 "~ 37 °17 °14" north and longitude 117 °32 °15 "~ 118 °31 °00" east, covering an area of 5965 square kilometers. Zibo City is located at the intersection of the two national strategic economic zones of the Yellow River Delta, the Blue Economic Zone of Shandong Peninsula and the economic circle of Shandong provincial capital cities, with Linyi in the south, Dongying and Binzhou in the north, Weifang in the east and Jinan, the provincial capital in the west. In 2017, Zibo has a resident population of 4.7084 million. Zibo is a national historical and cultural city with a long history, the birthplace of Qi culture and the birthplace of world football.