Melo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmelo]) is the capital city of the Cerro Largo Department of north-eastern Uruguay.

The stream Arroyo Conventos (a tributary of Tacuarí River) flows by the west limits of the city.

[6] It was named after Pedro Melo de Portugal, a Spanish colonial official of Portuguese royal ancestry.

[citation needed] In 1845, the city square was renamed in honor of Manuel Oribe, a former President of Uruguay and a political leader of the White Party (Partido Blanco), which brought to light the relations of this corner of the country with that National Movement (the vast majority of its inhabitants have belonged to that same political community).

The historian J.C. Chasteen has discussed the place of Melo in the history of Uruguay in his book Heroes on Horseback: A Life and Times of the Last Gaucho Caudillos.