MEXICO CITY
A CULTURAL MEGACITY, ATTRACTING PEOPLE FROM ACROSS MEXICO, AND THE WIDER WORLD
Mexico City is one of the world’s great capitals.
Founded by the Aztecs as Tenochtitlan, when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1509, the city built in the center of a lake was the largest urban settlement on the planet – home to more than 300,000 residents. Hernan Cortes described it as “the most beautiful thing in the world”, but nevertheless destroyed it less than two years later in his defeat of the Aztecs.
As the capital of ‘New Spain’ (Mexico under the Spanish Empire), the lake was drained and the mountain bowl in which this megacity now sits is home to over 22 million people.
Mexico City has some of the best restaurants in the country, some of the finest cultural offerings, and is a must for anyone seeking a better understanding of the country as a whole.