Mexico City

Map of Mexico City        Mexico facts & history in brief

Mexico City, (Ciudad de Mexico in Spanish), is the largest city in Mexico and the World and the capital of Mexico, with the population of over 27 million in the metropolitan area.
The city was founded in the 1300's as the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.
In 1521, the Spanish conquistador Cortés, destroyed the old city and rebuilt it as the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
It lies at the altitude of 2,240 m. (7,350 ft.), and is one of the most populous cities in the world.
The industries of the city employ more than half of all Mexico's industrial workers.
Mexico City is also the financial, commercial, political, and cultural centre of the nation, and a great tourist attraction.
The 1968 summer Olympics were held here.
In 1984, over 450 people died in a major industrial accident.
A major earthquake in 1985 killed more than 2,000 people.
Notable sights include the cathedral, national palace, Castle of Chapultepec, and Anthropological Museum.
Mexico City is built on and ancient lake and because the water-table has been lowered so much by wells and drainage that many buildings are being damaged by subsidence.

Hui Chin and I was very pleased that we have visited Mexico, especially Mexico City.
There was a lot of work was going on road and services around town and around our hotel.
Mexico city wasn't the first one, where we have seen this either.
Much the same as usual, we went for a city sightseeing tour.
During our sightseeing tour we were taken to the 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' Basilicas.
Aaaawesome.
Next day we returned for another day to participate in a couple of masses, that we walked in during our explorations.
There are two main Basilicas and many churches and chapels in the complex. You really need most of a day to see everything around here.
We also went to see the Pyramids at Teotihuacan. (The Pyramids of San Juan de Teotihuacán).
The place is about 30-35 kilometres from Mexico City and the drive there was very interesting and entertaining.
We stopped at an 'artisans collective souvenir shop', with interesting demonstrations, stories and souvenirs>
A large number of developments going on outside the city, to house the expanding population.
We were told an interesting story about the hills along the our road.
Large numbers of rural people come to Mexico City all the time attracted by jobs and the fast pace of city life.
These poor people build themselves a shack on the side of the hills, which are government property, adding to it as time goes by.
Once they spent five years on the property, it becomes theirs, by Mexican law.

Another exciting day, although an incident at our lunch break did spoil it for us some.

The lunch break was part of the tour, but we had to pay for it individually.
Hui Chin and I were running low on cash and we did ask the restaurateur before we sat down,if they accept Visa, because Visa isn't very popular, by our experience in Latin America.
Yes, he told us.
When it came to pay, of course, they did not accept Visas or any other credit cards from anybody, we had to borrow the price of our meals, from another couple from our hotel.
Very embarrassing.
I did complain about it, at the time.
Quiet strongly too.
Wasn't really a fair play.
It wasn't cricket, Mate, if you happen to read this.

We happened to forget the name of the Restaurant.
I would like to name them, to warn others.
I would appreciate if someone could let me know.
(Their excuse was, that business was very slow, and they can't afford the commissions on the credit cards).

Returning to our Mexican experiences, did anybody noticed the Mexicans liking for green.
Thousands of green Volkswagen Beetle Taxis running around the city.
Also the buses and some of the bridges are the same green colour.
We spent a couple of days exploring the city on foot.
There was a free, very noisy and colourful concert going on the Plaza front of the Cathedral, one day when we visited.
We returned the next day for another look.
We are looking forward to visit Mexico again soon.

You can click on these photos for an enlargement.

Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City
Green taxis	Mexico City	McDonald's on the road	Mexico City
Tequila time	Mexico City	Green buses	Mexico City
Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City
Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City
Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City	Mexico City

Links to other pages in my 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' series

Site Index         Back to Top         Photos Index

Thanks for coming, I hope you have enjoyed it, will recommend it to your friends, and will come back later to see my site developing and expanding.

I'm trying to make my pages enjoyable and trouble free for everyone, please let me know of any mistakes or trouble with links, so I can fix any problem as soon as possible.

These pages are best viewed with monitor resolution set at 640x480 and kept simple on purpose so everyone can enjoy them across all media and platforms.

Thank you.

Webmaster