The municipality has an area of 2,338.4 km2 (902.9 sq mi) in the south-central part of the state, situated in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, on the bank of the Huacapa River.

In pre-Columbian times, the area was occupied by the Olmecs, who built an extensive tunnel network through the mountains, and left the cave paintings in the caverns of Juxtlahuaca.

[1] During the War of Independence, Chilpancingo was crucial to the insurgent cause as its population participated actively and decisively in their favor, and it became a strategic point for military action in the south.

[4] In 1870 it was again declared capital by Governor Francisco O. Arce, due to the opposition led by General Jiménez, who was in possession of the official seat of government at Tixtla.

Battles took place in the vicinity in the 1910s, in which Emiliano Zapata defeated federal forces of Porfirio Díaz, Francisco I. Madero, Victoriano Huerta and Venustiano Carranza.