Deodapper
Mexico City: Zócalo, Templo Mayor, Chapultepec
Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, MX · 6 stops · 23 km (14.3 mi) · about 1 h 28 min driving · 16 spoken stories
Perfect for history buffs and first-time visitors to Mexico City. Drive from the airport through the colonial heart—the Zócalo and Templo Mayor, the marble Palacio de Bellas Artes, and Paseo de la Reforma's grand boulevard with El Ángel—ending at Chapultepec Castle. About 90 minutes, 14 miles.
Photo: GAED, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
From Mexico City International Airport (MEX) to Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City
The stops
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1
Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución)
Zócalo is the common name of the main square in central Mexico City. Prior to the conquest by Spain, it was the main ceremonial center in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The plaza used to be known simply as the Plaza Mayor or Plaza de Armas, and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución.
“Here we are at the Zócalo, officially the Plaza de la Constitución, and it really is the heart of Mexico City.”
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2
Templo Mayor
The Templo Mayor was the main temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenōchtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Its architectural style belongs to the late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica. The temple was called Huēyi Teōcalli in the Nahuatl language, meaning 'great church' or 'great house of god'.
“This is the Templo Mayor, the great temple of the Mexica people in their capital, Tenochtitlan.”
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3
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, also commonly called the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, is the cathedral church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico.
“The Metropolitan Cathedral frames the whole north side of the Zócalo, and it sits right on top of the former Aztec sacred precinct, next door to the Templo Mayor.”
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4
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It hosts performing arts events, literature events and plastic arts galleries and exhibitions.
“Up ahead is the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the one people call the art cathedral of Mexico.”
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5
Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City. It was designed at the behest of Emperor Maximilian by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig during the era of the Second Mexican Empire and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as the Ringstraße in Vienna and the Champs-Élysées…
“Now we're on Paseo de la Reforma, the wide avenue that cuts diagonally straight across the heart of Mexico City.”
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6
El Ángel de la Independencia
The Angel of Independence, most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Monumento a la Independencia, is a victory column on a roundabout on the major thoroughfare of Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City.
“This golden column on the roundabout is the Monument to Independence, though everybody just says El Ángel.”
How it works
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