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Parque México
A main focus is the peaceful, beautifully kept Parque México, full of trees, well-maintained paths, benches with cute little roofs, and signs exhorting everyone to demonstrate their ecoconsciousness and treat their parque nicely. Amsterdam, which runs in an oval loop one block outside the park's perimeter, was originally a horse-race track. When the track was handed over to developers in 1924, it was stipulated that a certain area inside it must be kept green - hence Parque México.
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Parque Nacional Fuentes Brotantes
A national park built around natural springs. At the top of the trail, about 1km southwest of Av Insurgentes, is a large reservoir inhabited by ducks.
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Parroquia De San Agustín De Las Cuevas
Dating from the 1600s, the church features an oddly modernist contemporary altar, no doubt owing to Barragán's influence. Exit through the woodsy atrium which fronts the church.
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Parroquia De San Bernardino De Siena
East of Jardín Juárez stands the 16th-century Parroquia de San Bernardino de Siena, with an elaborate gold-painted retablo (altarpiece) and a large tree-studded atrium.
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Parroquia De San Juan Bautista
This single-nave church and its adjacent former monastery dominate the east side of Plaza Hidalgo. First erected in 1592 by the Franciscan order, the Parroquia de San Juan Bautista has a lavishly ornamented interior, with painted scenes all over the vaulted ceiling. Be sure to inspect the cloister, featuring Tuscan columns and a checkerboard of carved relief panels on the corner ceilings.
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Plaza De Las Tres Culturas
So named because it symbolizes the fusion of pre-Hispanic and Spanish roots into the Mexican mestizo identity, the Plaza of the Three Cultures displays the architectural legacy of three cultural facets: the Aztec pyramids of Tlatelolco, the 17th-century Spanish Templo de Santiago and, on the south side, the modern tower that now houses the Centro Cultural Universitario. A calm oasis north of the city center, the plaza is nonetheless haunted by echoes of its turbulent history.
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Plaza Hidalgo & Jardín Del Centenario
The focus of Coyoacán life and the scene of most of the area's weekend fun are its twin central plazas. The eastern Plaza Hidalgo has a statue of Miguel Hidalgo; the western Jardín del Centenario is surrounded by attractive cafés and centers on a fountain with a coyote sculpture, which is a symbol of Coyoacán. The two plazas are divided by Calle Carrillo Puerto.
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Plaza Juárez
Representing the new face of the zone, this modern plaza is across the way from the Alameda's Hemiciclo a Juárez, a semicircle of marble columns dedicated to postindependence president Benito Juárez, and behind the fully restored Templo de Corpus Christi, which now holds the DF's archives. The plaza's centerpiece is a pair of Tetris-block towers by leading Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta: the 24-story Foreign Relations Secretariat building and the 23-story Tribunales (courts) building.
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Plaza San Jacinto
Every Saturday the Bazar Sábado brings a festive atmosphere, masses of color, and crowds of people to San Ángel's pretty little Plaza San Jacinto.
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Plaza Tolsá
Several blocks west of the Zócalo is this handsome square, named after the illustrious late-18th-century sculptor and architect who completed the Catedral Metropolitana.
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Probert
A quality gallery specializing in contemporary works by Mexican and Latin American artists, plus paintings by several European and American artists now resident in Mexico. The latter include respected Dublin-born artist Phil Kelly, who has lived here since 1989 and paints evocative landscapes. Also here to tempt you is a selection of exquisite and unusual glass and ceramic beaded jewelry.
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Rancho Del Charro
This permanent covered arena is located between the Panteón Civil de Dolores and the 3ª Sección of the Bosque de Chapultepec. The main charreada season is from mid-May to early June.
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Sagrario Metropolitano
Adjoining the east side of the cathedral is the 18th-century Sagrario. Originally built to house the archives and vestments of the archbishop, it is now the city's main parish church. Its front entrance and mirror-image eastern portal are superb examples of the ultradecorative Churrigueresque style.
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San Ángel Inn
Across the way from the Diego-Frida home, the San Ángel Inn is in the former Hacienda de Goicoechea, an 18th-century pulque plantation with a beautiful verdant courtyard, a fountain, a chapel and colonial gardens. It is historically significant as the place where Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata agreed to divide control of the country in 1914. If your budget won't run to a meal here at the prestigious restaurant you can still stroll in the gardens and perhaps have a drink in the cocktail bar.
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Santa Cecilia Acatitlán
About 2km north of Tenayuca is a small but fine pyramid topped with a temple (both reconstructed) dedicated to the gods Tláloc and Huizilopochtli. It stands in pleasant, leafy grounds behind the pretty, 16th-century Parroquia Santa Cecilia, some of whose stone came from the original pyramid. Access to the pyramid is through the Museo Hurtado, with a small collection of pre-Hispanic sculpture.
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Santa Muerte Altar
Garbed in a sequined white gown, wearing a wig of dark tresses and clutching a scythe in her bony hand, the skeletal figure bears an eerie resemblance to Mrs Bates from the film Psycho . Santa Muerte (St Death), as she is known, is the object of a fast-growing cult in Mexico, particularly in the rough Barrio Tepito, where this principal altar stands on Alfarería north of Mineros. Possibly rooted in pre-Hispanic ritual, Santa Muerte has been linked to Mictlantecuhtli, the Mexican god of death.
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Senado De La República
The upper house of Mexico's federal congress, the Cámara de Senadores, meets in a building on the east side of the Museo Nacional de Arte. It's usually in session from September to December. The Distrito Federal's elected assembly, the Asamblea Legislativa del Distrito Federal (ALDF), uses the old Cámara de Diputados building around the corner at Donceles and Allende.
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Templo De La Santísima
The profusion of ornamental sculpture on the façade - including ghostly busts of the 12 apostles and a representation of Christ with his head in God's lap - is the main reason to visit the Church of the Holy Sacrament, three blocks east of the Museo Nacional de las Culturas. Most of the carving was done by Lorenzo Rodríguez between 1755 and 1783.
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Templo De Nuestra Señora De Loreto
Noticeably sagging toward the east, this extraordinary church stands upon the site of an earlier chapel that housed a replica of Our Lady of Loreto brought from Italy by a Jesuit priest in 1675. The current church was completed in 1816 with the obligatory neoclassical facade of the period. It promptly started sinking into the ground but fortunately stopped a few years later.
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Templo Mayor
The Teocalli of Tenochtitlán, demolished by the Spaniards in the 1520s, stood on the site of the cathedral and the blocks to its north and east. It wasn't until 1978, after electricity workers happened on an eight-ton stone-disc carving of the Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui, that the decision was taken to demolish a block of colonial buildings and excavate the Templo Mayor.
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Templo Y Museo De El Carmen
A storehouse of magnificent sacred art, this museum occupies a former school run by the Carmelite order, adjacent to their 17th-century Templo de El Carmen. (The village was named for their patron saint, San Ángelo Mártir.) The collection includes eight oils by Mexican master Cristóbal Villalpando; equally splendid are the polychrome and gilt designs on the ceilings. The big draw, however, are the dozen mummies in the crypt. Thought to be the bodies of 17th-century benefactors of the order, they were uncovered during the revolution by Zapatistas looking for buried treasure.
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Tenayuca
Settled by Chichimecs in about the 13th century, Tenayuca was later ruled by the Aztecs, and the double-staircase pyramid they left is a smaller version of the now-ruined one that stood in the Templo Mayor. As at the Templo Mayor, each staircase was topped by a temple - one dedicated to the water god Tláloc, the other probably dedicated to the Aztec tribal god Huizilopochtli.
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Tlatelolco - Plaza de las Tres Culturas
The Plaza de las Tres Culturas is so named because it symbolizes the fusion of pre-Hispanic and Spanish roots into the Mexican mestizo identity. It displays the architectural legacy of those three cultural strands: the Aztec pyramids of Tlatelolco, the 17th-century Spanish Templo de Santiago and the modern Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Ministry).
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Torre Latinoamericana
A landmark for disoriented visitors since 1956, the Torre Latinoamericana was Latin America's tallest building when constructed. (Today it's Mexico City's fifth tallest.) Thanks to the deep-seated pylons that anchor the building, it has withstood several major earthquakes. In 2002, it was acquired by Mexican mogul Carlos Slim. Views from the 44th-floor observation deck are spectacular, smog permitting.
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Torre Mayor
A 2003 addition to the Mexico City skyline, the Torre Mayor stands like a solitary sentinel before the lion's gate of Bosque de Chapultepec. Designed by Canadian architect Heberhard Zeidler, the green-glass tower soars 225m above the capital, making it Latin America's tallest building. The earthquake-resistant structure is anchored below by 98 seismic shock absorbers. Unfortunately, the building's top tower observation deck was shut in 2006, with no explanation given.
