Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger version of the photo. Return to this page by using your browser's "Back" button.
Capital of a notion, Mexico City (Distrito Federal in Spanish, or simply "DF") and its 21 million residents can be overwhelming to the first time visitor, though there are many interesting attractions in the city and nearby. This page visits both Mexico City and nearby areas in the adjacent states of México and Hidalgo.
DF - vie of the city, looking toward the Zócalo, which is in the middle of the photo. |
DF - view looking north toward the hill of Tepeyac and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. |
DF - the Metropolitan Cathedral taken from the Zócalo (main square). The largest cathedral in Latin America, its construction lasted from 1573 to 1813. |
DF - view in front of he Cathedral, looking toward the Monte de Piedad, or Mexico's "national pawn shop". |
DF - view of the Palacio Nacional on the east side of the Zócalo, built on the site of the Palace of Moctezuma, rebuilt in 1692 after an earthquake. |
DF - In the center there are many fine colonial churches, such as that of Loreto, completed in 1810 and tilting badly in the soft soil in which it sits. |
DF - the Palacio de Minería (Mining School), now an art museum. The statue in front is of the Spanish King Charles IV and was cast in 1802. |
DF - the Palacio de Bellas Artes, built in Art Nouveau style in the early 20C. |
DF - the Plaza of Three Cultures in the Tlatelolco district integrates prehispanic ruins, a church from the colonial era, and contemporary structures. |
DF - the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, built at the site where according to legend the Virgin Mary appeared three times to the Indian Juan Diego. |
DF - next to the Basilica is this small chapel, which has been converted to a museum. The old Basilica has been closed for some years because of subsidence. |
DF - the modern Basilica holds the cloak in which the Virgin Mary appeared, and can accommodate 200,000 people. |
DF - the Capilla del Pocito is small chapel on a hill above the Basilica of Guadalupe, built in baroque style in the 18C. |
DF - an unusually smog-free view of the city from the air. The urbanized area extends seemingly without end. |
Just 49 kms northeast of Mexico City lie the ruins of Teotihuacán, which reached its apogee from 200 to 500 AD when it may have had 250,000 inhabitants. The site was abandoned by the time of the Spanish conquest. The main pyramids and other structures are laid out along a central Street of the Dead which is nearly 4 km long. Nearby are the well preserved colonial churches of Acolman and Epazoyucan.
|
 |
| Teotihuacán - two views (above) of the Pyramid of the Moon, which is situated at the north end of the site and measures 150m at its base and 42m in height. | |
Teotihuacán - view of the Street of the Dead from the Pyramid of the Moon. The name was assigned after the site's decline by the Aztecs. |
Teotihuacán - Pyramid of the Sun, the largest structure at the site (213m x 64m), covering almost the same area as the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. |
|
 |
| Teotihuacán - two views (above) of the Palace of Quetzalcoatl, where the priests serving the sanctuaries of the Moon lived. | |
Acolman - view of the church, founded by the Augustinians in the 16C. It lies just a few kms from the ruins of Teotihuacán. |
Acolman - detail of a fresco in the courtyard, painted by Aztec painters in the early years of the colonial era and subtly combining some of their motifs (note the scroll at the base). |
View of countryside between Acolman and Epzoyucan. |
Epazoyucan - site of another 16C Augustinian church, that of San Andrés. |
 |
Epazoyucan - detail (left) of a fresco in the cloister. Part of a cycle, they are considered among the best examples of such 16C art in the Americas. |
Epazoyucan - the turkey was one of the few sources of protein (other than human flesh) available to the Aztecs at the time of the Conquest. |
Map courtesy of Lonely Planet. |
