Ciudad de Mexico
The largest city in the world
Written in part using materials from other sources.
Mexico city is huge with a population great than 20 million. It therefore has more people than the entire Australian population. That sure is crowded.
Mexico City is the capital and largest city of Mexico, in the south central part of the country, in the Distrito Federal (Federal District). Situated in the Valley of Mexico, a highland basin, at an elevation of about 2350 m (about 7710 ft), the city is bounded by mountains on three sides.
Traditionally, Mexico City has been populated by mestizos (people of Native American and European heritage) and criollos (people of pure Spanish descent). But migration from other parts of the country has increased the number of Native Americans living in the city. Immigration has also brought representatives of many other world cultures, including people of non-Spanish European descent, Arabs, and Asians.
More than half of Mexico's industrial output is produced in or near Mexico City. Manufactures include textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, electrical and electronic items, steel, and transportation equipment; in addition, a variety of foodstuffs and light consumer goods are produced. Mexico City is the center of an emerging manufacturing belt that stretches from Guadalajara in the west to Veracruz on the Gulf Coast in the east. Major highways and railroads radiate from the city to all parts of the country. A huge international airport is located east of the city. Transportation within Mexico City has been chronically congested, partly because of the narrow old streets; an important improvement was the opening, in 1970, of a subway system.
The center of the city has historically been the Zcalo, or Plaza of the Constitution, which occupies the site of the central square of the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitln, flanked by the massive baroque National Cathedral (begun 1573, completed 1675), the Municipal Palace (1720), and the National Palace (1792), containing the office of the president and the Senate. From the Zicalo the major avenue extends north to the Plaza of the Three Cultures, which has Aztec, Spanish colonial, and modern structures, and south to the sprawling Chapultepec Park, which contains several museums, a zoo, and Chapultepec Castle, the former presidential residence.
The rapid growth of Mexico City has created several problems, including serious air pollution, an increasingly inadequate water supply, and the sinking, by as much as 6 m (20 ft), of parts of the downtown area into the soft lake deposits that underlie much of the city, damaging buildings and disrupting some water and sewerage lines.
It is obviously a great and unique city to visit but might take a few days to see all the cool sites.