Mexico City

Why Mexico City works

Mexico City is built, quite literally, on top of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital the Spanish razed and rebuilt starting in 1521 — a layering visible at the Templo Mayor ruins beside the cathedral in the Zocalo, one of the largest public squares in the world. The Metropolitan Cathedral itself took nearly 250 years to complete, its facade a study in shifting architectural fashion from Renaissance to neoclassical. Chapultepec Park holds the National Museum of Anthropology, widely regarded as one of the finest archaeology museums anywhere, its ground floor alone containing the Aztec Sun Stone and Mayan artefacts spanning three millennia. Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Coyoacan draws steady queues to see her cobalt-blue courtyard home preserved much as she left it, while Roma Norte and Condesa's tree-lined streets hold Mexico City's best contemporary restaurants and mezcal bars, product of a food scene now internationally recognised well beyond tacos al pastor. An hour outside the city, the pyramids of Teotihuacan — pre-dating the Aztecs by centuries and never definitively attributed to a single civilisation — allow a climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun for views over the entire ceremonial avenue. Xochimilco's canals, remnants of the lake system the Aztecs once built their chinampa farms upon, now host colourful trajinera boat parties with mariachi bands rowing alongside. At over 2,200 metres elevation, the air is notably thin and pollution can spike, but the city's sheer cultural density makes it one of Latin America's essential stops.

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