Mexico City Mexico

Mexico City Sits on a Drained Lake and Is Slowly Sinking Into It

The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was built on an island in Lake Texcoco in the 14th century. The Spanish destroyed it, built their colonial capital on the same site, and spent the next 500 years draining the lake to create buildable land. The result is Mexico City – a metropolis of 21 million people built on compressible lake sediment at 2,240 metres above sea level, which sinks by as much as 30 centimetres per year in some districts, which is why many colonial buildings tilt visibly and why the city has more history underfoot than almost any other on earth.

That specific condition – deep history compressed under a living city – is what makes Mexico City rewarding for visitors who engage with it. The Templo Mayor archaeological site was discovered in 1978 when workers laying cable hit Aztec stone. The ruins lie at the corner of the Zocalo, directly beneath the colonial Spanish city built on top of them.

The Historic Centre

The Zocalo is one of the world’s largest plazas, roughly 240 metres per side, framed by the Metropolitan Cathedral (built over three centuries from 1573), the National Palace, and the Templo Mayor. The National Palace houses Diego Rivera’s monumental murals depicting Mexican history from pre-Columbian civilisations to the Revolution – a 1,200-square-metre work spanning three floors and completed over 25 years. Entry is free.

The Templo Mayor museum on the Zocalo’s north side covers the excavated layers of successive Aztec temples and the artefacts found within them. This is not a recreation; the stones are original and the findings include ritual objects, sacrificial deposits, and architectural elements that document a civilisation at its height just before contact. Allow three hours.

Neighbourhoods

Roma and Condesa are the neighbourhoods where Mexico City’s contemporary culture concentrates: independent coffee shops, restaurants serious enough to compete internationally, art galleries, and tree-lined streets of Art Deco and 1940s architecture. Walking between them takes 20 minutes and covers the best food per street in the city.

Coyoacan in the south was Frida Kahlo’s home. The Casa Azul (Blue House) museum is where she was born, lived with Diego Rivera, and created most of her work. The personal nature of the collection – her wheelchair, her medical corsets, her paints – makes it more affecting than most artist museums. Book tickets in advance; it sells out.

Polanco is the upscale northern district: international hotels, high-end restaurants, the Anthropology Museum. The Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Chapultepec Park is one of the great museums in the world for pre-Columbian civilisations – the Aztec Sun Stone, the reconstructed tomb of Pakal from Palenque, and extensive Mayan, Zapotec, and Teotihuacan collections. Allow a full day.

Xochimilco, 25 kilometres south, is the surviving section of the ancient lake canal system: colourful flat-bottomed trajinera boats, vendors paddling between them selling food and drinks, and floating gardens (chinampas) that have been cultivated for over 1,000 years.

Eating

Mexico City has restaurants that compete at global level. Pujol (chef Enrique Olvera) and Quintonil (chef Jorge Vallejo) are the two consistently ranked in the world’s top 50; both require reservations weeks ahead. For seafood, Contramar in Roma does tuna tostadas and aguachile (cured shrimp) that are among the best things to eat in the city for a fraction of the fine-dining price.

Tacos al pastor – pork marinated in chili and achiote, cooked on a vertical trompo spit with pineapple, a Mexican variation of shawarma brought by Lebanese immigrants in the 19th century – are the street food most people remember. Multiple taqueria chains do them reliably; the independent spots are better.

Practical Notes

The altitude (2,240 metres) affects some visitors for the first day or two – headaches and fatigue resolve with hydration and slower movement. The Metro is fast, affordable, and covers most tourist areas efficiently. Uber works and is cheap. The best walking neighbourhoods (Roma, Condesa, Coyoacan, Centro Historico) are each navigable on foot for a full day.

Teotihuacan, 50 kilometres northeast, is the most significant pre-Columbian city in Mexico: the Pyramid of the Sun (the third largest pyramid in the world by volume), the Pyramid of the Moon, and the 2-kilometre Avenue of the Dead. Most tours run as a half-day from Mexico City; getting there independently by bus from Terminal de Autobuses del Norte takes about an hour each way.