Ciudad de México

Overview

Ciudad de México (Mexico City) is the capital of Mexico and one of the largest urban areas in the Western Hemisphere — around 9.2 million people in the city proper and roughly 22 million across the metropolitan area. The city sits at 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) in the Valley of Mexico, built over the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán and the dry bed of Lake Texcoco, and concentrates the country's political life, its great muralist tradition, one of the world's flagship anthropology collections and the iconic Estadio Azteca, one of the largest football stadiums in the world and the home of Club América and the Mexican national team.

Travel

Ciudad de México is the political and economic centre of Mexico and one of the largest urban areas in the Western Hemisphere — around 9.2 million people in the city proper and roughly 22 million across the metropolitan area. The city sits at 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) above sea level in the Valley of Mexico, ringed by mountains including the snow-capped Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanoes to the east; the modern urban grid is built over the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán and the dry bed of Lake Texcoco. That layered history is the city's defining feature: the UNESCO World Heritage Centro Histórico is built directly over the Aztec ceremonial centre, with the Templo Mayor excavation, the Catedral Metropolitana (the largest cathedral in the Americas) and the Palacio Nacional all framing the Zócalo, one of the largest public squares in the world. The neighbourhoods around the centre form a dense cultural geography: Roma and Condesa west of the centre with tree-lined streets, Art Nouveau and Art Deco apartment buildings, café culture and a modern restaurant scene; Polanco further west with the upscale Avenida Presidente Masaryk corridor and the Museo Soumaya and Museo Jumex collections; Coyoacán south of the centre with cobblestone streets and Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul; Xochimilco at the far south with its UNESCO-listed network of pre-Hispanic canals and trajinera flat-bottomed boats. Chapultepec Park — at 686 hectares one of the largest urban parks in the Western Hemisphere — concentrates many of the city's flagship institutions, including the Museo Nacional de Antropología (one of the great anthropology museums of the world), the Museo de Arte Moderno, the Museo Tamayo and the hilltop Chapultepec Castle. Diego Rivera and the Mexican muralist movement live in public buildings across the city — the Palacio Nacional, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Secretaría de Educación Pública and several smaller markets all carry mural cycles. Estadio Azteca, in the southern district of Santa Úrsula, is one of the largest stadiums in the world and the storied home of Club América and the Mexican national football team.

Frequently asked questions

Diplomatic missions in Ciudad de México

12 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.