Mexico City (Mexico)

 

 

Tourists admire the city's attractive wide avenues, its old churches (the cathedral was begun in the 1570s and finished in 1667) and impressive public buildings, including the National Palace. It is probably the oldest city on the continent. Before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519, it was the capital of the Aztecs, who may have numbered 300,000.

 

 

Its name then was Tenochtitlan. Cortés, the Spanish conqueror, levelled the Aztec city, built the first Christian church on American soil (1525), and laid out the new town in accordance with Spanish custom — a compact grid of streets focused on a spacious central square. Alongside the very old, Mexico City boasts skyscrapers, offices, apartment buildings of ultra-modern design, and public buildings decorated with murals by contemporary artists.