Part modern metropolis, part monstrosity, marvelous Mexico City is truly epic.

Mexico City is the political, financial and cultural nerve center of Mexico, and to understand the country one should spend some time here. Perhaps more than any city on earth, it is at the intersection of the first and third worlds, with all the ills, thrills and surprises that suggests.

One moment the city is all latin beats, glamor and excitement; the next it's drabness, poverty, suffocating crowds and rancid smells. In spite of the negatives, Mexico City is a magnet for Mexicans and visitors alike. You certainly won't be bored in this complex, historic city.

Environment

Latitude: 19.4270458221
Area: 5000sqkms
Population: 18000000
Orientation:

Mexico City's 350 colonias (neighborhoods) sprawl across the ancient bed of Lago de Texcoco and beyond. The vast urban expanse is daunting at first, but the main areas of interest to visitors are pretty comprehensible. The historic heart of the city, El Zócalo, and its surrounding neighborhoods are known as the Centro Histórico (historic center) and are full of notable old buildings and interesting museums. Avenidas Madero and Cinco de Mayo link the Zócalo with the Alameda Central park. West of the Alameda, across Paseo de la Reforma, is the Plaza de la República, a fairly quiet, mostly residential area with budget and mid-range hotels.

Mexico City's grandest boulevard is Paseo de la Reforma, running across the city's heart, connecting the Alameda to the Zona Rosa and the Bosque de Chapultepec. The Zona Rosa (pink zone) pulsates with glitzy shopping, eating, hotels and nightlife; it's bound by Paseo de la Reforma to the north and Avenida Chapultepec to the south. The Bosque de Chapultepec, known to gringos as Chapultepec Park, is to the west of the aforementioned districts. It's a big bunch of greenery and lakes, with museums and cultural tidbits to boot.

Five kilometers (3mi) north of the city centre is the Terminal Norte, the largest of the city's four major bus terminals. Avenida Insurgentes Sur connects Paseo de la Reforma to most points of interest in the south. Just west of Insurgentes, south of the Zona Rosa, is Colonia Condesa, a restaurant hotspot. Further south are the atmospheric former villages of San ángel and Coyoacán and the vast campus of UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico. To the southeast, canals and gardens (and many a tourist) wind through Xochimilco.

Society

Language spoken (official): Spanish

Latin American Spanish

Language spoken (other): Nahuatl

Pre-departure

Electricity voltage: 127V

Electricity HZ: 60Hz

Weather

In Mexico City, the weather is temperate and warm all year, and mainly dry. It can be cool on winter nights, and afternoon showers are common from June to September. Winters never really dip much below 10°C (50°F), while even May, the hottest month, doesn't get much above 27°C (81°F).

Communication

Area Code:

55

Mexico City is often portrayed as an extremely crime-ridden city, so first-time visitors can be astonished to find how safe and human it feels. While the incidence of street crime remains too significant to deny the risks - express kidnappings, car thefts and muggings are a daily occurrence - there's no need to walk in fear whenever you step outside. A few precautions greatly reduce any dangers.

Robberies happen most often in areas frequented by foreigners, including the Bosque de Chapultepec, around the Museo Nacional de Antropología and the Zona Rosa. Be on your guard at the airport and bus stations, and remember to keep your bag between your feet when checking in. Avoid empty pedestrian underpasses. Crowded metro cars and buses are favorite haunts of pickpockets. Stay alert, keep your hand on your wallet and you'll be fine.

Unless absolutely necessary, avoid carrying ATM cards, credit cards or large amounts of cash. Most importantly, if you become a robbery victim, don't resist. Hand over your valuables rather than risking injury or death.

A far more immediate danger than muggings is traffic, which statistically takes more lives in the capital than street crime. Obvious as it sounds, always look both ways when crossing streets. Some one-way streets have bus lanes running counter to the traffic flow, and traffic on some divided streets runs in just one direction. Never assume that a green light means it's safe to cross, as cars may turn left into your path. It's useful to take the 'safety in numbers' approach, crossing with other pedestrians.

Events

This city has one busy calendar. Between Christmas and Día de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings' Day or Epiphany) on January 6, Santa Clauses around Alameda Central are replaced by the Three Kings. Kids get loads of gifts, and the streets are aflutter with shopping stalls. In late March, plazas, palaces and theaters around the city are taken over by the three-week Festival del Centro Histórico, a program of classical and popular music, dance and cultural events. Semana Santa (Holy Week) starts on Palm Sunday, and closures are usually from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

On Día del Trabajo (Labor Day), there is a big unionists' gathering in the Zócalo in the morning, as well as parades around the city. Día de la Independencia (September 16), commemorates the start of Mexico's war for independence from Spain, and on its eve, thousands of people gather in Zócalo to hear the president recite a version of the Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores).

Mexico's most characteristic fiesta by far, though, is Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead): a happy atmosphere prevails as families build altars in their homes and visit graveyards to commune with their dearly departed, bearing garlands, gifts and food. A week or more of celebrations leads up to Día de Nuestra Señora Guadalupe (December 12), the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the country's major religious icon and Mexico's national patron. Groups of brightly costumed indigenous dancers and musicians perform on the basilica's large plaza for two days.

Año Nuevo (New Year's Day) (official holiday) Jan 1

Día de la Constitución (Constitution Day) (official holiday) Feb 5

Día de la Bandera (Day of the Flag) (official holiday) Feb 24

Día de Nacimiento de Benito Juárez (Anniversary of Benito Juárez's birth) (official holiday)

Mar 21 Viernes Santo (Good Friday) (official holiday) Mar/Apr

Domingo de Resurrección (Easter Sunday) (official holiday) Mar/Apr

Día del Trabajo (Labor Day) (official holiday) May 1

Cinco de Mayo (1862 victory celebration) (official holiday) May 5

Día de la Independencia (Independence Day) (official holiday) Sep 16

Día de la Raza (commemoration of Columbus' discovery of the New World) (official holiday) Oct 12

Día de la Revolución (Revolution Day) (official holiday) Nov 20

Día de Navidad (Christmas Day) (official holiday) Dec 25

Año Nuevo (New Year's Day) (official holiday) Jan 1

Día de la Constitución (Constitution Day) (official holiday) Feb 5

Día de la Bandera (Day of the Flag) (official holiday) Feb 24

Día de Nacimiento de Benito Juárez (Anniversary of Benito Juárez' birth) (official holiday) Mar 21

Good Friday (official holiday) Mar/Apr

Easter Sunday (official holiday) Mar/Apr

Día del Trabajo (Labor Day) (official holiday) May 1

Cinco de Mayo (1862 Victory Celebration) (official holiday) May 5

Día de la Independencia (Independence Day) (official holiday) Sep 16

Día de la Revolución (Revolution Day) (official holiday) Nov 20

Día de Navidad (Christmas Day) (official holiday) Dec 25

Media

Books

La Capital - The Biography of Mexico City (Author: Jonathan Kandell)

A lively account of the ultra-lively city. It covers weird and wonderful characters, as well as issues, '-isms' and acronyms.

Carlos Fuentes (Author: Where the Air is Clear)

One of Mexico's literary giants, this is Fuentes' first novel, and one of his best. It traces the lives of various Mexico City dwellers through Mexico's post-revolutionary decades in a critique of the revolution's failure.

Urban Leviathan - Mexico City in the 20th Century (Author: Diane E Davis)

A detailed treatment of Mexico City's politics, economy and society since the Porfiriato.

Distant Neighbors (Author: Alan Riding)

A good intro to modern Mexico and the country's love-hate relationship with the USA.

Opening Mexico (Author: Julia Preston & Sam Dillon)

Dramatic account of Mexico's emergence as a democracy by New York Times correspondents.

Activities

Mexico City's altitude, pollution and noise make strenuous outdoor activity a bit trying. But that shouldn't stop you strolling the Centro Histórico, ambling through Parque México, cheering on the 'good guys' at a bout of lucha libre, or cruising Xochimilco's back canals to the Isla de las Muñecas.

Transport

getting there and away (overview)

Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez, 6km (4mi) east of the Zócalo, is Mexico City's only passenger airport. Recent renovations have expanded its capacity to 30 million passengers annually, making it the largest airport in Latin America. Flights go to the US, Canada and Europe.

Buses go to and from various destinations all over Mexico.

getting around (overview)

Mexico City has an inexpensive, easy-to-use metro, and an equally cheap and practical bus system plying all the main routes. Taxis are plentiful, but some are potentially hazardous - people have been beaten, robbed and sexually assualted by cab drivers. Always call for a taxi rather than hailing one, and make sure to get the driver's license plate and name from the dispatcher so that you know you're getting into the right car.

Cycling is a pleasant way to see the city, especially as the weather is clement and the ground flat, but watch out for potholes and loco drivers.

Culture

History Before 20th Century

As early as 10,000 BC, people and animals lived around Lago de Texcoco, the lake that then covered much of the floor of the Valle de México. After 7500 BC the lake began to shrink, hunting became more difficult, and the inhabitants turned to agriculture. A federation of villages evolved around the lake by 200 BC, but the biggest one, Cuicuilco, was destroyed by a volcanic eruption that occurred around AD 100.

The next major influence in the area was Teotihuacán, 25km (16mi) northeast of the lake. For centuries Teotihuacán was the capital of an empire stretching to Guatemala and beyond, but it fell in the 7th century. Of several city-states in the region in the following centuries, the Toltec empire, based at Tula, 65km (40mi) north of modern Mexico City, was the most important. By the 13th century the Tula empire had fallen too, leaving a number of small statelets around the lake to spat over the Valle de México. The Aztecs emerged as the winners.

Wrecked during and after the Spanish conquest, the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán was rebuilt as a Spanish city. The native population of the Valle de México shrank drastically - to fewer than 100,000 within a century of the conquest, by some estimates. But the city itself emerged by 1550 as the prosperous and elegant (if unsanitary) capital of Nueva España. Broad, straight streets were laid out and buildings constructed to Spanish designs with local materials such as tezontle, a light-red volcanic rock that the Aztecs had used for their temples. Hospitals, schools, churches, palaces, parks and a university were built. But right up to the late 19th century the city suffered floods caused by the partial destruction in the 1520s of the Aztecs' canals. Lago de Texcoco often overflowed into the city, damaging buildings, bringing disease and forcing thousands of people away from their homes.

On October 30, 1810, some 80,000 independence rebels had Mexico city at their mercy after defeating Spanish loyalist forces at Las Cruces, just west of the capital. But leader Miguel Hidalgo decided against advancing on the city - a mistake that cost Mexico 11 more years of fighting before independence was achieved.

Modern History

Mexico City entered the modern age under the despotic Porfirio Díaz, who ruled Mexico for most of the period from 1877 to 1911, managing to attract much foreign investment. He had railways built to the provinces and the USA. Industry grew, and by 1910 the city had 471,000 inhabitants. A drainage canal and tunnel dried up much of the Lago de Texcoco, allowing further expansion.

After Díaz fell in 1911, the Mexican Revolution brought war and hunger to the city's streets. In the 1920s, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and other young artists were commissioned to decorate numerous public buildings with dramatic, large-scale murals conveying a new sense of Mexico's past and future.

By 1940, 1.7 million people lived in Mexico City, and factories and skyscrapers started shooting up left, right and center. The supply of housing, jobs and services couldn't keep up with the growth, and shantytowns were born on the city's fringes. Despite continued economic growth into the 1960s, political and social reform lagged behind. Student-led discontent came to a head as Mexico City prepared for the 1968 Olympic Games. Ten days before the games began, 5000 to 10,000 people gathering in Tlatelolco, north of the city center, were encircled by troops and police. To this day, no one knows how many people died in the ensuing massacre, but the number is estimated to be in the hundreds.

Mexico City kept growing at a frightening rate in the 1970s and began to develop some of the world's worst traffic and pollution problems, only slightly alleviated when the metro system opened in 1969, and again by attempts in the 1990s to limit traffic. Despite a devastating earthquake that killed over 10,000 people in 1985, people have continued to pour into the city.

The poverty and overcrowding that always existed alongside the city's wealth were exacerbated by the recession of the mid-1990s, which left hordes of people living on the margins of subsistence. One effect of the crisis was a huge jump in crime, and subsequent recovery was very gradual.

In 1997, the Distrito Federal was granted political autonomy and elected its own mayor for the first time. The new administration was widely seen as honest and well-intentioned, and made the first serious efforts to combat police corruption, a major factor in high crime levels.

Recent History

Today an estimated 600 newcomers arrive in the city daily. Though it has multiplied in area more than 10 times since 1940, it's still one of the world's most-crowded metropolitan areas.

In 2000, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a member of the left-leaning PRD, was elected mayor. Capitalinos (Mexico City residents) generally approved of his populist initiatives, which included an ambitious makeover of the Centro Histórico. In 2005, the Fox administration attempted to have 'AMLO' removed from his post - and from political life - by prosecuting him on tenuous contempt-of-court charges. But the plan backfired: when the mayor handed the reins over to Alejandro Encinas, his chief cabinet minister, to launch a presidential campaign, he found himself more popular than ever. Encinas was succeeded in 2006 by Marcelo Ebrand of the leftist PND. Soon after the elections, he got married to a soap actress, amid controversy about their exorbitant wedding registry.

Factoid

Mexican Combo

The relationship between painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, who both lived in Mexico City, was described as a union between an elephant and a dove: he was big and fat, she short and slight.

Places of Interest

La Hacienda de los Morales

Summary Review:

Often the setting for banquets and receptions, this 400-year-old once-colonial country hacienda is now decidedly urban, making the spacious rooms and pretty gardens all the more appealing. Excellent Mexican and Spanish dishes are served in numerous dining rooms by the experienced staff. Reservations are advisable, as is formal dress for dinner.

Los Girasoles

Summary Review:

This is one of the best of a wave of restaurants specializing in alta cocina mexicana (Mexican haute cuisine). The menu boasts an encyclopedic range of Mexican fare, from pre-Hispanic (ant larvae), to colonial (turkey in tamarind mole) to innovative (snapper fillet in rose hip salsa). Your tastebuds will thank you.

San ángel Inn

Summary Review:

Next to the Estudio Diego Rivera, the San ángel Inn is housed in an ex-hacienda complete with lovely flowery courtyard, fountain and gardens. It serves delicious traditional Mexican and European cuisine, but even if you don't splurge for dinner, be sure to sample one of their renowned margaritas or martinis.

Alameda Central

Summary Review:

Alameda Central is Mexico City's only sizable downtown park and is surrounded by some of the city's most interesting buildings and museums. Created in the late 1500s by then-Viceroy Luis de Velasco, the park took its name from the álamos (poplars) planted over its rectangular expanse. It's particularly popular on Sunday, when families congregate.

Full Review:

Under the administration of Mayor López Obrador, the Alameda and adjacent Avenida Juárez underwent ambitious redevelopment. The Foreign Relations Secretariat towers, designed by leading architect Ricardo Legorreta, and Sheraton Centro Histórico have transformed the look of the corridor, much of which was destroyed in the 1985 earthquake.

Tlatelolco - Plaza de las Tres Culturas

Summary Review:

The Plaza de las Tres Culturas is so named because it symbolizes the fusion of pre-Hispanic and Spanish roots into the Mexican mestizo identity. It displays the architectural legacy of those three cultural strands: the Aztec pyramids of Tlatelolco, the 17th-century Spanish Templo de Santiago and the modern Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Ministry).

Full Review:

The Plaza of Three Cultures is a calm oasis in the city, but is haunted by the echoes of its sombre history. Founded by Aztecs in the 14th century, Tlatelolco was a separate dynasty from Tenochtitlán, on a separate island in Lago de Texcoco. Cortés defeated Tlatelolco's Aztec defenders here in 1521. You can view the remains of Tlatelolco's main pyramid-temple and other Aztec buildings from a walkway around them. The Spanish, recognizing the religious significance of the place, built a monastery here and then, in 1609, the Templo de Santiago.

Tlatelolco is also a symbol of more modern troubles; it was where government troops massacred hundreds of protesters on the eve of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. The full truth about the massacre has never come out: the traces were hastily cleaned away, and Mexican schoolbooks still do not refer to it.

Basílica de Guadalupe

Summary Review:

In December 1531, so the story goes, an indigenous Christian convert named Juan Diego had a vision of the Virgin Mary as he stood on Cerro del Tepeyac (Tepeyac Hill), site of an old Aztec shrine. The local bishop was eventually convinced when the lady's image was miraculously emblazoned on his cloak and a shrine dedicated to the event soon sprang up.

Full Review:

By the 1970s the old yellow-domed basilica, built around 1700, was swamped by worshippers and was sinking slowly into the soft subsoil. So the new Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was built next door. Designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, architect of the Museo Nacional de Antropología, it's a vast, round, open-plan structure with a capacity for over 40,000. The image of the Virgin hangs above and behind the main altar, with moving walkways to bring visitors as close as possible.

Museo de Arte Moderno

Summary Review:

The Museum of Modern Art exhibits work by Mexico's most noteworthy 20th-century artists. Four skylit rotundas house canvasses by Dr Atl, Rivera, Siqueiros, Orozco, Kahlo, Tamayo and O'Gorman, among others. You can also see Las Dos Fridas, possibly Frida Kahlo's most well-known painting. Temporary exhibitions feature prominent Mexican and foreign artists.

Palacio Nacional

Summary Review:

The National Palace is home to the offices of the president of Mexico, the Federal Treasury and dramatic murals by Diego Rivera. Above the central entrance hangs the 'Campana de Dolores', the bell rung in the town of Dolores Hidalgo by Padre Miguel Hidalgo in 1810 at the start of the Mexican War of Independence. The first palace on this spot was built by Aztec emperor Moctezuma II in the early 16th century, but Cortés destroyed it in 1521.

Full Review:

The Diego Rivera murals along the main staircase, painted between 1929 and 1935, depict Mexican civilization from the arrival of Quetzalcóatl (the Aztec plumed serpent god) up to the post-revolutionary period. The nine murals covering the north and east walls of the first level above the patio deal with indigenous life before the Conquest; Rivera's vision of Tenochtitlán is incredibly detailed.

Salón Los ángeles

Summary Review:

'Those who don't know Los ángeles don't know Mexico' reads the marquee, and for once the hyperbole is well deserved. Cuban-music fans won't want to miss the outstanding orchestras here nor the incredibly graceful dancers who fill the vast floor. Particularly on Tuesday evening, when an older crowd comes for danzones, it's like the set of a period film. It's in a rough area, so take a taxi.

La ópera Bar

Summary Review:

After decades as a bastion of masculinity, this ornate early 20th-century watering hole decided to open its doors to women in the 1970s. With original booths of dark walnut and an ornate tin ceiling (said to have been punctured by Pancho Villa's bullet on an otherwise slow night), it's a pleasant setting for a tequila.

Bar Milán

Summary Review:

Tucked away on a quiet backstreet, this casual hangout is the closest you can get to riding the metro at rush hour, with a college crowd jamming three narrow rooms. Purchase beer tickets, then make your way over to the cactus-trimmed bar. The soundtrack ranges from classic rock to Café Tacuba; don't be surprised if the crowd spontaneously bursts into chorus.

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