mesa

thumb|Aerial view of mesas in Monument Valley, on the [[Colorado Plateau]] thumb|right|Har Qatum, a mesa located on the southern edge of Makhtesh Ramon, Israel thumb|Ingleborough in North Yorkshire, England thumb|Mount Garfield (Mesa County, Colorado)|Mount Garfield, a mesa in Colorado A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a resistant layer of harder rock, like sandstone or limestone, forming a caprock that protects the flat summit. The caprock may also include dissected lava flows or eroded duricrust.

Unlike a plateau, which is a broader, elevated region that may not have horizontal bedrock (e.g., Tibetan Plateau), a mesa is defined by flat-lying strata and steep-sided isolation. Large, flat-topped plateaus with horizontal strata, less isolated and often part of extensive plateau systems, are called tablelands. A butte is a smaller, eroded mesa with a limited summit, while a cuesta has a gentle dip slope and one steep escarpment due to tilted strata.