The authors of the Royal Ordinances of 1573 for the laying out of new towns would have been keenly disappointed if, transported to the Indies, they had been able to survey Zacatecas from the top of La Bufa. Instead of the regular pattern of a grid-iron town provided for by the Ordinances, with judiciously spaced plazas, public buildings and churches, all placed in a fertile hinterland and set about with woodlands, they would have seen a straggling linear settlement, cramped between two hills in a narrow valley. This was the cañada of Zacatecas, a near gully cut by a stream which, for most of the year, ran with negligible current. Looking around, instead of rich arable land, they would have been faced on three sides by rocky hills, whose gently undulating heights displayed little more than sparse patches of thin grass, and as a final flourish of vegetation, stunted mezquite and huizache. On the slopes grew nopal and palmilla cactus to vary the scene. Only if they had looked to the west or to the south-east would they have seen land productive enough to meet the recommendations of the Ordinances, which advised siting new towns in fertile surroundings. On the plains to the west, they might have glimpsed herds of cattle and mules; and to the south-east of the town, along the banks of the stream, and especially on the alluvial flat where the monastery of Guadalupe was later built, orchards and vegetable gardens (huertas) would have met their gaze.