Have you ever heard this time-honored phrase of amazement uttered by some dumbstruck or exasperated Mexican? Whatever its origins, it is perhaps never more appropriately used than by those visitors who come to appreciate the state's wide diversity of tourist merits. Once familiar with them, they too can rightly exclaim, "Ay Chihuahua!".

While any local schoolkid in Mexico can tell you that the state is the nation's largest (245,000 km2, about half the area of Spain and accounting for over one-eighth of the national territory) and that its capital city bears the same name, very few know how big the state once was or how small a Chihuahua dog is supposed to be.