El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, The Royal Road of the Interior Land, was a 1,200 mile trade route between Mexico City, the port of Veracruz, Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is our country's oldest and longest continuously used highway, bringing European colonists from Mexico to "New Spain" from 1598 until 1885. Many of the people living in the Southwest today are descendants of these early settlers.