MEXICO CITY: BEST CITY TO VISITED





























Is one of the biggest cities in the world, and the biggest in the continent.  With a population of 20 million people of all around the world is a multicultural city. 

New York Times " Mexico City, a metropolis that has it all" 
Tripadvisor " is home to plenty of vacation spots so it can be difficult to decide where to travel" 
Washington Post "Mexico City is top destination for 2016"
And more... 

Is a city that has all... 
In my opinion, I visited Mexico City a lot of times. I am not from Mexico. Before I visited I thought that was a dangerous city, with bad people and all, but when I arrived the first think I saw was good people. I like the city, it isn´t dangerous, it has a lot of security I garantized. Is a city that you can walk and the people doesn´t say you something. 
Is a city that is a combination of the classic and the best thecnology of latin america.  
I prefer 100 time Mexico City than Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. 
You can walk in one street and see a building of 1900 and behind the tallest skyscraper of the city. 
I will put you the bes places that I considered essential to visit in your first time in the city, and how to arrived there, of course I will tell you the public transport and interesting data. 

Cathedral and National Palace, Zocalo 




Is the largest cathedral in the Americas. It is situated atop the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la Constitución in Downtown Mexico City. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813 around the original church that was constructed soon after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan.  The cathedral has been a focus of Mexican cultural identity, and is a testament to its colonial history.

Is the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución . This site has been a palace for the ruling class of Mexico since the Aztec empire, and much of the current palace's building materials are from the original one that belonged to Moctezuma II.

 Is the common name of the main square in central Mexico City. Before to the colonial period, it was the main ceremonial center in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Square).

Bellas Artes Palace 




 Is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted some of the most notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and photography. Consequently, the Palacio de Bellas Artes has been called the "Cathedral of Art in Mexico". The building is located on the western side of the historic center of Mexico City next to the Alameda Central park. 

Main Post Office 



 Is located in the historic center of Mexico City, on the Eje Central (Lazaro Cardenas) near the Palacio de Bellas Artes. During the porfiriato, the population has grown a lot, and the goverment optated to create the Mexican Post Correos de México.  Its design and construction was the most modern of the time, including a very eclectic style mixing several different traditions into a very complex design.

The Palace of Mining



The Palacio de Mineria, is one of the masterpieces of Neoclassicalarchitecture in the Americas. It was designed and built between 1797 and 1813. The building is located on Tacuba Street opposite the Plaza Manuel Tolsá and the equestrian statue (Carlos IV of Spain) also sculpted by Tolsá.  Later it housed other institutions such as the National University, the School of Engineering, College of Mines and the Physics Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. It´s known for been one of the beautiest palace in the Americas. 

Chapultepec Castle 



It is located in the middle of Chapultepec Park in Mexico City at a height of 2,325 meters (7,628 ft) above sea level. The site of the hill was a sacred place for Aztecs, and the buildings atop it have served several purposes during its history, including that of Military Academy, Imperial residence, Presidential home, observatory, and presently, the National Museum of History.  It is the only royal castle in mainland North America that was actually used as the residence of a sovereign: the Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, and his consort Empress Carlota, lived there during the Second Mexican Empire. The first Emperor Agustín de Iturbide did not serve long enough to establish an imperial residence.

Chapultepec Park



The Bosque de Chapultepec, in Mexico City, is the largest city parks in the Western Hemisphere, measuring in total just over 686 hectares (1,695 acres). Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is to be an ecological space in Greater Mexico City. It is considered the first and most important of Mexico City's "lungs", with trees that replenish oxygen to the Valley of Mexico. Bosque de Chapultepec is divided into three sections, with the first section being the oldest and most visited. This section contains most of the park's attractions including the castle, the Chapultepec Zoo, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Rufino Tamayo Museum, among others.

MUNAL 



Natianl Art Museum or Museo Nacional de Arte,   is the Mexican national art museum, located in the historical center of Mexico City. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building. It includes a large collection representing the history of Mexican art from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid 20th century. It is recognizable by Manuel Tolsá's large equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain, who was the monarch just before Mexico gained its independence. The museum’s permanent collection is designed to give a panoramic view of the development of the fine arts in Mexico from the early colonial period to the mid-twentieth century. The artwork is subdivided into three distinct periods. The first covers the colonial period from 1550 to 1821. The second covers the first century after Independence and the third covers the period after the Mexican Revolution to the 1950s. 

Angel of Independence




 El Ángel de la Independencia o monumento a la independencia  is a victory column on a roundabout on the major thoroughfare of Paseo de la Reformain downtown Mexico City.

El Ángel was built in 1910 during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz , to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City, and it has become a focal point for both celebration or protest. 

Monument to the Revolution 

 Monumento a la Revolución is a landmark and monument commemorating the Mexican Revolution. It is located in Plaza de la República, which crosses at the heart of the major thoroughfares Paseo de la Reforma and Avenida de los Insurgentes in downtown Mexico City. The building was initially planned as the Federal Legislative Palace during the regime of Porfirio Díaz and "was intended as the unequaled monument to Porfirian glory." Considered the tallest triumphal arch in the world, it stands 67 metres (220 ft) in height. The structure also functions as a mausoleum for the heroes of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Francisco I. Madero, Plutarco Elías Calles, Venustiano Carranza, and Lázaro Cárdenas.

Xochimilco 

The Lake is an ancient endorheic lake, located in the present-day Borough of Xochimilco in southern Mexico City.

The lake is within the Valley of Mexico hydrological basin, in central Mexico. Lake Xochimilco was originally a part of an even larger Lake Texcoco during the last glacial period. Between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, the climate in central Mexico warmed and the snowmelt that once fed Lake Texcoco virtually disappeared. This caused the lake to drop hundreds of feet over next several thousand years. By 2,000 years ago Xochimilco became a bay in the southern portion of Texcoco. Then around the 13th or 14th century the Aztecs built large causeways effectively creating a new lake.  The five lakes within the Valley of Mexico have now largely disappeared, drained to reduce flooding. Only the Xochimilco canals remain from the original Lake Xochimilco. Even today, some chinamperos still work their chinampa gardens between the canals.

Xochimilco Lake remnants are part of large urban parks in Mexico City, with water-based and land recreation. Colourful trajineras (rafts) take groups of people on the remaining canals for pleasure.

Xochimilco Ecological Park and Plant Market was established as a nature reserve and park, and is the largest park in Mexico City after Chapultepec. There is also the thirteen hectare Xochimilco/Cuemanco Plant Market, the largest in Latin America. The market is on chinampa land.

Latinamerican Tower

The Torre Latinoamericana, is a skyscraper in downtown Mexico City. Its central location, height 188 m or 597 ft; 44 stories and history is one of the city's most important landmarks. It is widely recognized internationally as an engineering and architectural landmark since it was the world's first major skyscraper successfully built on highly active seismic land. The skyscraper notably withstood the 8.1 magnitude 1985 Mexico City earthquake without damage, whereas most structures in the downtown area were destroyed. The Torre Latinoamericana was Mexico City's tallest building from 1956 to 1984.  At the time of its completion the Torre Latinoamericana was the 45th tallest building in the world. It was also the tallest building in Latin America, and the fourth in height in the world outside New York. Its public observation deck on the 44th floor is the highest in Mexico City.

Frida Kahlo Museum 

The Museo Frida Kahlo,  is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City. The building was the birthplace of Kahlo and is also the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for a number of years, and in one of the rooms on the upper floor would die. In 1958, Diego Rivera's will donated the home and its contents in order to turn it into a museum in Frida's honor.

Paseo de la Reforma

 

Paseo de la Refroma is the meain financial district in Mexico City, also is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City.  It is now home to many of Mexico's tallest buildings such as the Torre Mayor and others in the Zona Rosa. More modern extensions continue the avenue at an angle to the old Paseo. Many monuments to people and events in Mexico's history and the history of the Americas are situated on and along Reforma. Today, the Reforma is filled with tourist attractions, luxurious restaurants and hotels, office buildings, public art exhibitions, and new construction. With the renewal project, new life has come to the avenue. It has become a main attraction of the city and the most expensive one to build on. However, after many of Mexico City's banks and business left Paseo de la Reforma for the Santa Fe business district in the last decade, the boulevard has been the center of a real estate renaissance. Remarkable buildings built in recent years are Torre Mayor, Torre HSBC in the Ángel roundabout, Torre Libertad with St. Regis Hotel in the Diana fountain roundabout, and Reforma 222 designed by famous Mexican architect Teodoro González de León at Reforma and Havre St. Recently opened mix-used developments include a Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Residences and a Park Hyatt Hotel & Residences.

The Japanese Embassy is located on Paseo de la Reforma. The American Embassy is also currently located on Reforma, however, the American delegation is in the process of transferring by 2020 to the Nuevo Polanco area.

Five skyscrapers are under construction along the boulevard near the entrance to Chapultepec Park and the Diana the Huntress fountain: Torre Reforma (244m), Punto Chapultepec (238m), Torre BBVA Bancomer (235m), and Torre Diana (158m).

Guadalupe Church 

 Is a Roman Catholic church, basilica and National shrine of Mexico in the north of Mexico City. The shrine was built near the hill of Tepeyac where Our Lady of Guadalupe is believed to have appeared to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. This site is also known as La Villa de Guadalupe or, in a more popular sense, simply La Villa, as it has several churches and related buildings.

The new Basilica houses the original tilma (or cloak) of Juan Diego, which holds the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. One of the most important pilgrimage sites of Catholicism, the basilica is visited by several million people every year, especially around 12 December, Our Lady of Guadalupe's Feast day. 

Teotihuacan Pyramids

 Is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, located in the State of Mexico 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of modern-day Mexico City, known today as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas.

At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 or more, making it at least the sixth largest city in the world during its epoch.

Apart from the pyramids, Teotihuacan is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead and the small portion of its vibrant murals that have been exceptionally well-preserved. Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread usage throughout Mesoamerica.

Templo Mayor

Was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Its architectural style belongs to the late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica.  The spire in the center of the adjacent image was devoted to Quetzalcoatl in his form as the wind god, Ehecatl. Construction of the first temple began sometime after 1325, and it was rebuilt six times. The temple was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521 to make way for the new cathedral. Today, the archeological site lies just to the northeast of the Zocalo, or main plaza of Mexico City, in the block between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets. The site is part of the Historic Center of Mexico City, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987.

SouMaya Museum 

 

The Museo Soumaya is a private museum in Mexico City. It is a non-profit cultural institution with two museum buildings in Mexico City - Plaza Carso and Plaza Loreto. It has over 66,000 works from 30 centuries of art including sculptures from Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, 19th- and 20th-century Mexican art and an extensive repertoire of works by European old masters and masters of modern western art. 

Santa Fe

Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city in the delegaciones (boroughs) of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Paseo de la Reforma and Constituyentes are the primary means of access to the district from the central part of the city. Santa Fe consists mainly of highrise buildings surrounding a large shopping mall, which is currently the largest mall in Latin America (Centro Comercial Santa Fe). The district also includes a residential area and three college campuses, among other facilities. 

References: Wikipedia