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La Feria
Kids will love this old-fashioned amusement park with some hair-raising rides. A 'Super Ecolín' passport (around $80 ) is good for all the rides except the roller coaster.
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Laboratorio De Arte Alameda
As with many museums in the Centro Histórico, the building that contains the Alameda Art Laboratory is as interesting as its contents. The former church is just a fragment of the 17th-century Convento de San Diego which was dismantled under the postindependence reform laws. As the museum's name suggests, it hosts installations by leading experimental artists from Mexico and abroad, with an emphasis on current electronic, virtual and interactive media. They could not have asked for a grander exhibition space.
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Lotería Nacional
Mexico's lottery is a national passion, and the tall art deco tower on the west side of Paseo de la Reforma opposite Av Juárez is the game's headquarters. Walk into the building and up the stairs almost any Sunday, Tuesday or Friday after , take a seat in the cozy auditorium, and at exactly the sorteo (the ceremony of picking the winning numbers) begins. Cylindrical cages spew out numbered wooden balls, which are plucked out by uniformed pages who announce the winning numbers and amounts.
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Lourdes Sosa
A small one-room gallery with regular exhibitions of paintings, sculptures and graphic art by renowned national artists such as Manuel Felguérez, whose massive Puerta 1808 sculpture graces the intersection between Paseo de la Reforma and Juaréz near the city center.
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Mercado De Xochimilco
South of the plaza, the bustling Mercado de Xochimilco covers two vast buildings: the one nearer the Jardín Juárez has colorful flower displays and an eating annex for tamales and other prepared foods, while the one nearer the train station sells mostly produce and household goods, with a few pottery stalls.
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Monumental Plaza México
This deep concrete bowl can hold 48,000 spectators. The taquillas (ticket windows) by the bullring's main entrance have printed lists of ticket prices. As a rule, the more expensive seats are in the sombra (shade), the cheaper are in the sol (sun). The cheapest seats of all are in the Sol General section - the top tiers of seating on the sunny side of the arena. The Sombra General - the top tiers on the shady side - costs slightly more. The best seats are in the Barreras, the seven rows nearest the arena which normally cost around $180 to M$300.
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Monumento A La Independencia
On the northwest flank of the Zona Rosa stands the symbol of Mexico City, the Monument to Independence. Known as 'El Ángel' (The Angel), this gilded statue of Victory on a 45m pillar was sculpted for the independence centennial of 1910, just as the Mexican Revolution got under way. The female figures around the base portray Law, Justice, War and Peace; the male ones are Mexican independence heroes. Inside the monument are the remains of Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, José María Morelos and nine other notables.
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Monumento A La Revolución
Begun in the 1900s under Porfirio Díaz, the Monument to the Revolution was originally meant to be a meeting chamber for legislators. But construction (not to mention Díaz' presidency) was interrupted by the Revolution. The structure was modified and given a new role in the 1930s: the tombs of the revolutionary and postrevolutionary heroes Pancho Villa, Francisco Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Plutarco Elías Calles and Lázaro Cárdenas are inside its wide pillars.
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Monumento A Los Niños Héroes
The six marble columns marking the eastern entrance to the park, near Chapultepec metro, commemorate the 'boy heroes,' six brave cadets who perished in battle. On September 13, 1847, more than 8000American troops stormed Chapultepec Castle, which then housed the national military academy. Mexican General Santa Anna retreated before the onslaught, excusing the cadets from fighting, but the youths, aged 13 to 20, chose to defend the castle.
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Muca
This gallery is a branch of the national university's Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes. The range of exhibits is impressive, covering both traditional and cutting-edge contemporary Mexican art, like the pop art style installations of Manolo Arriola for which he projects images on to the wall via a dazzle of neon lights.
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Museo Archivo De La Fotografía
Inaugurated in November 2007, the photographic archive museum occupies the 16th-century Casa de Ajaracas, which was completely renovated for the purpose. The museum draws from a century's worth of images taken for the Gaceta Oficial del Distrito Federal - the DF public record - to document the capital's development and preserve the memory of its streets, plazas, buildings and people.
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Museo Casa Del Risco
A mad mosaic of Talavera tile and Chinese porcelain. Upstairs is a treasure trove of Mexican baroque and medieval European paintings.
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Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera Y Frida Kahlo
If you saw the movie Frida, you'll recognize the Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Studio Museum, 1km northwest of Plaza San Jacinto. Designed by their friend, the architect and painter Juan O'Gorman, the innovative abode was the home of the artistic couple from 1934 to 1940, with a separate house for each of them. Frida lived there for five years until she decided to divorce Diego for supposedly having an affair with her sister, and took her things over to the Casa Azul in Coyoacán. (They remarried soon afterward.)
Read more about Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera Y Frida Kahlo
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Museo De Arte Carrillo Gil
The Carrillo Gil Art Museum has a permanent collection of works by such Mexican luminaries as Rivera, Siqueiros and Orozco (including some of Orozco's grotesque, satirical early drawings and watercolors). The museum also includes engravings and prints by Klee, Rouault, Braque and Kandinsky, plus often excellent temporary exhibits. In the basement is a pleasant bookstore and café.
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Museo de Arte Moderno
The Museum of Modern Art exhibits work by Mexico's most noteworthy 20th-century artists. Four skylit rotundas house canvasses by Dr Atl, Rivera, Siqueiros, Orozco, Kahlo, Tamayo and O'Gorman, among others. You can also see Las Dos Fridas , possibly Frida Kahlo's most well-known painting. Temporary exhibitions feature prominent Mexican and foreign artists.
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Museo De Arte Popular
Opened in 2006, the Museo de Arte Popular is a major showcase for Mexico's folk arts and traditions. Contemporary crafts from all over Mexico are thematically displayed on the museum's three levels, including pottery from Michoacán, carnival masks from Chiapas, alebrijes (fanciful animal figures) from Oaxaca and trees of life from Puebla. There are also beaded textiles, fantastic headdresses and votive paintings, along with videos of indigenous festivities.
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Museo De Historia De Tlalpan
Half a block from the plaza, the Tlalpan history museum hosts compelling historical and art exhibits in naturally lit galleries off the courtyard.
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Museo De La Basílica De Guadalupe
The rear of the Antigua Basílica is now the basilica museum, with a fine collection of colonial art interpreting the miraculous vision. Various galleries on two floors display mostly large-scale works, including one of a procession along a causeway on Lago de Texcoco, one of the rare depictions of the lake before it was drained. The walls in the entry hall are covered with ex-votos, naive paintings on squares of metal that are done as an act of thanks for some miracle.
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Museo De La Caricatura
Mexico boasts a rich tradition of cartooning. Save for an eight-year period during the Porfirio Díaz regime when the dictator banned their publication, Mexican political cartoons have targeted the country's leaders since the early 19th century. And as a glance at La Jornada, Reforma or many other daily newspapers shows, the art of scathingly political caricatures is very much alive and well.
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Museo De La Luz
The 'museum of light' occupies the former monastery of San Pedro and San Pablo, one of the Centro's most ancient structures. Kids will enjoy the array of interactive exhibits here, including optical illusions, one-way mirrors and kaleidoscopes, designed to demonstrate various optical principles (though only readers of Spanish will be illuminated by the accompanying explanations). At the rear of the museum are all kinds of devices to test your eyesight, and an optometrist performs eye exams for just around $25 .
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Museo De La Secretaría De Hacienda Y Crédito Público
The Museum of the Finance Secretariat shows off its vast collection of Mexican art, much of it contributed by painters and sculptors in lieu of paying taxes. The former colonial archbishop's palace also hosts a full program of cultural events (many free), from puppet shows to chamber-music recitals.
Read more about Museo De La Secretaría De Hacienda Y Crédito Público
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Museo Del Caracol
A short distance down the road from the Castillo, this 'gallery of history' traces the origins of Mexico's present-day institutions, identity and values through a series of audio-enhanced dioramas re-enacting key moments in the country's struggle for liberty. The museum is shaped like a snail shell, with its 12 exhibit halls spiraling downward.
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Museo Del Estanquillo
The 'corner shop' museum contains the vast pop-culture collection amassed over the decades by DF essayist, commentator and pack rat Carlos Monsivais. Housed in a magnificent neoclassical building which was an important jewelry store in the early 20th century, the museum illustrates various phases in the capital's development through numerous photos, paintings, daguerreotypes, board games, movie posters, illustrated sheets of verse, comic strips and so on from the collection. Taken together, these objects culled from the city's flea markets, rare book stores and antique shops add up to a vivid people's history of Mexico City.
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Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño
Possibly the most important Diego Rivera collection of all belongs to the Olmedo Patiño museum, ensconced in a peaceful 17th-century hacienda 2km west of central Xochimilco.
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Museo Franz Mayer
An oasis of calm and beauty north of the Alameda, this museum is the fruit of the efforts of Franz Mayer, born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1824. Earning the moniker Don Pancho in his adopted Mexico, Mayer amassed the collection of Mexican silver, textiles, ceramics and furniture masterpieces that is now on display at the museum.
