Mexico – Mexico City
The city of Mexico City is absolute madness par excellence. In its dried up lake bed at an altitude of 2240 m lies the city. Mexico City has the largest urban area in the world with about 2600 km². Mexico City is home to over 20 million people! Chaotic traffic conditions, unbelievable smog and a high crime rate do not invite you to linger for a long time at first glance. But there is a reason why you absolutely have to experience this city: Mexico City is the cultural center of the country and has an eventful history.
The high valley over which Mexico City stretches is a veritable reservoir of the most beautiful and best, worst and ugliest that the country has to offer. The result of this mixture is a lively, polluted giant city full of music and noise, smog and green lungs, full of colonial palaces, world-famous museums and unmanageable slums.
The historic center of Mexico City is the Plaza de la Constitución, better known as the Zócalo. The square was laid out in the 1620s under Cortés, who had it paved with stones from the ruins of the temples and palaces of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, on whose foundations Mexico City was built. Tenochtitlán was located in the middle of a lake, so many of the older buildings and churches of today’s city are slowly but surely sinking into the swampy ground. We have only booked Mexico City for a few days and start our city tour on the second day of our stay at the Zócalo, the central square of the city.
The entire east side of the Zócalo is occupied by the Palacio Nacional (National Palace). It was built on the foundations of an Aztec palace. Today it is the president’s offices. There is also a museum with murals by Diego Rivera documenting the history of Mexico. The Catedral Metropolitana is located on the north side of the Zócalo. It was built there in the 20s of the 16th century by the Spaniards. There used to be an Aztec tzompantli or skull wall (an altar on which the skulls of sacrificed people were laid out).
The Cathedrale Metropolitana is definitely a must-see. In 250 years of construction, from 1563 to 1813, the largest church on the entire continent was built. To the east of the cathedral are the remains of the Templo Mayor. It is the most important of the Aztec temples. The Alameda, formerly an Aztec marketplace, is now a small park. The streets around the Alameda are lined with colonial mansions, skyscrapers, cafes, restaurants, shops and markets.
Another must-see for visitors is the Bosque de Chapultepec. It is the largest park in the city. It’s home to a handful of museums, fairgrounds, and the president’s residence. The Basilica de Guadalupe is a church built on the site where the Mexican patron saint is said to have appeared. Also worth seeing are the colonial houses of San Ángel, as well as the Cuicuilco pyramid and the canals of Xochimilco. We also planned to “climb” the tallest building in Mexico, the Torre Latinoamericana. There is a restaurant on the 41st floor and there is an observation deck above the restaurant.
The view is really worth seeing. From here you have a wonderful view of Mexico City. A visit in the late afternoon is particularly nice, when the lights go on in Mexico City. Mexico City is a modern and cosmopolitan city located on the shores of a lake surrounded by volcanic mountains. The different cultures that have been at home in this place over the centuries have produced a special and extremely idiosyncratic and interesting architecture of different styles. But Mexico City is not only the largest city in the world, it is also the cradle of Aztec culture.
If you want to have activities throughout the day, Mexico City is certainly the place to be. You can get museum visits, a never-ending nightlife, culture and entertainment here. The city offers art and cultural exhibitions from all eras, from the pre-colonial period (Museum of Anthropology) to the modern era (Museum of Modern Art), but also the traditional, as can be seen in the Frida Kahlo Museum. Not far from Mexico City are the Pyramids of the Sun and Moons in Teotihuacán. The pyramid of Cuicuilco in the south of the city is a special construction. It is semi-hidden and covered by the lava from an eruption of the Xitle volcano over 3,000 years ago. The whole history and transformation of this city over the course of different eras can be traced in the Anthropology Museum.
The main attractions are the Palace of Fine Arts, a monument made of white marble built by a French architect, and the Square of the Three Cultures. On the second day of our arrival in Mexico, we come back from visiting the museums in the evening and are completely exhausted. The exhaust-laden air and the unfamiliar altitude of Mexico City (or both together) are causing us a lot of trouble. So we are glad to have arrived back at the Hotel Alameda to relax a little. The hotel is centrally located and you can do (almost) everything on foot. We also have a beautiful view of the city from the roof terrace of the hotel.
