Mexico City Hotel
Often large numbers of tourists like to go to the city of Mexico City. Some may want to see the cultural, entertainment, sports and tourist attractions of the city and culture. Some tourists may want to get a hotel in the centre of the city or in the suburbs. Some may want a hotel near the city in a town near the city. Some may want a hotel that has is large or small. Some may want a hotel that has good entertainment and parking facilities. Some may want a hotel that has a good reputation and good access to parking and entertainment facilities.
Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, D.F., Distrito Federal, México or Méjico) is the capital city of Mexico.
Mexico City comprehends also the Federal District (Distrito Federal in Spanish, and hence the abbreviation D.F.). The Federal District is coextensive with Mexico City: both are governed by a single institution and are constitutionally considered to be the same entity. This has not always been the case. The Federal District, created in 1824, was integrated by several municipalities, one of which was the municipality of Mexico City. As the city began to grow, it engulfed all other municipalities into one large urban area. In 1928, all municipalities within the Federal District were abolished, an action that left a vacuum in the legal status of Mexico City vis-à-vis the Federal District, even though for most practical purposes they were traditionally considered to be the same entity. In 1993, to end the sterile discussions about whether one concept had engulfed the other, or if any of the two entities had any existence in lieu of the other, the 44th Article of the Constitution of Mexico was reformed to clearly state that Mexico City is the Federal District, seat of the Powers of the Union and capital of the United Mexican States.
Mexico City is located in the Valley of Mexico, also called the Valley of Anáhuac, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters. It was originally built by the Aztecs in 1325 on an island of Lake Texcoco. The city was almost completely destroyed in the siege of 1521, and was redesigned and rebuilt in the following years following the Spanish urban standards. In 1524 the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenustitlán, and as of 1585 it is officially known as ciudad de México.
The Valley of Mexico had been inhabited for thousands of years, but the civilizations that predate the founding of what is now Mexico City developed outside of the valley. The Teotihuacan civilization developed to the northeast but mysteriously was abandoned around 750 AD. After that, the Toltecs ruled the area until about 1200 AD. After the fall of the Toltec capital of Tollan, large migrations of people moved into the Valley of Mexico. This led to the founding of a number of semi-autonomous urban centers around Lake Texcoco. By the early 1500s, at least a dozen of these city-states had reached 10,000 in population with Tenochtitlan by far the largest at 150,000.
The Mexica who would found Tenochtitlan (and then be known as Aztecs) were part of the last wave of migration of Nahuatl-speaking peoples into the valley. Their presence was resisted; however, taking advantage of the nearly-constant conflict among the city states along the lakeshores, the Mexica were able to establish their city on an islet. Continuing to take advantage, they conquered the Valley of Mexico, exacting tribute from the same powers that resisted their migration.
The Mexica story is based on this history, but it is embellished with divine trappings. This story states that the god Huitzilopochtli told them to leave their original home Aztlan and look for a place promised to them. The tribe wandered more than 500 years, fighting a number of peoples and fleeing from others until they finally saw the sign promised, an eagle perched on a nopal plant on a small island in Lake Texcoco in 1325. Later versions of the story have a snake in the eagle’s beak. This remains the coat-of-arms of Mexico today. Despite internal strife and constant warfare with lakeside cities, from 1325 to 1521, the Mexica or Aztec city of Tenochtitlan became the center of a vast empire, ruling much of Mesoamerica. With a vast income of tribute, Tenochtitlan grew to become one of the largest and richest urban areas in the world at that time. The city had services and infrastructure that was unheard of in the rest of the world: potable water brought in by aqueducts, drainage systems and wide, paved streets. Their markets boasted of products from nearly every part of Mesoamerica
After landing in Veracruz, Hernan Cortes heard about the great city and also learned of long-standing rivalries and grievances against it. Although Cortes came to Mexico with a very small army, he was able to persuade many of the other Indian peoples to help him destroy Tenochtitlan.
Cortes first saw Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519. Upon viewing it for the first time, Cortes and his men were stunned by its beauty and size. The Spaniards marched along the causeway leading into the city from Iztapalapa. Moctezuma came out from the center of Tenochtitlan onto the causeway to greet them, exchanging gifts and friendly words. But the camaraderie did not last long. Cortes put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him. Tensions increased until the Aztec revolted against the Spanish intrusion and managed to capture or drive out the Europeans. Cortes regrouped at Tlaxcala. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone. They elected a new king, Cuauhtemoc. Cortes decided to lay siege to Tenochtitlan in May of 1521. For three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of disease brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island and fought their way through the city, street by street, and house by house. Finally, Cuauhtemoc had to surrender in August of 1521.
The Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan to the ground. Cortes first settled in Coyoacan, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site in order to erase all traces of the old order. Cortes did not establish an independent, conquered territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown. The first viceroy of the new domain arrived in Mexico City fourteen years later. By that time, the city had again become a city-state, having power that extended far beyond the city’s established borders Physically, the Spanish rebuilt the city with the same basic layout as the old city, but placing a church over the old temples and Cortes taking the old imperial palaces for himself. Tenochtitlan was renamed “Mixico,” its alternative name, as the Spanish found this easier to say.
The city grew as the population did, coming up against the lake’s waters. The 15th century saw a proliferation of churches, many of which can still be seen today in the historic center. However, flooding was a constant problem, and in the 17th century projects to drain and fill in parts of the lake were begun in earnest. This process would continue for most of the city’s history until the lakes disappeared. Economically, Mexico City prospered as a result of trade.
Independence for Mexico was declared by Agustin de Iturbide in 1821 after he and his army marched into the city. While Iturbide’s regime tried to keep as much as the old order as possible, he soon had to abdicate and Mexico was declared a republic in 1824, with Mexico City as its capital. Unrest followed for the next several decades, as different factions fought for control of Mexico. The Mexican Federal District was established by the new government and by the signing of their new constitution, where the concept of a federal district was adapted from the American constitution. Before this designation, Mexico City had served as the seat of government for both the State of Mexico and the nation as a whole. Texcoco and then Toluca became the capital of the state of Mexico. During the Mexican-American War, American forces marched toward Mexico City itself after capturing Veracruz. The invasion culminated with the storming of Chapultepec Castle in the city itself. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in what is now the far north of the city. Events such as the Reform War left the city relatively untouched and it continued to grow, especially during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz.
The 1968 Olympic Games brought about the construction of large sporting facilities
The Federal District is located in central-South Mexico. It is bounded by the state of Mexico on the west, north and east, and by the state of Morelos on the south. Mexico City and its metropolitan area, which extends over the state of Mexico, are located in the Valley of Mexico or Anáhuac, a 9,560 km2 valley that lies at an average of 2,240 m above sea level. This valley is a basin surrounded by mountains on all four sides, with only one small opening at the north. At the southern part of the basin, the mountain range reaches an altitude of 3,952 m above sea level; and to the east the volcanoes reach an altitude of more than 5,000 m. Three of Mexico's tallest peaks are located within 100 miles of the city, those being Popocatépetl at 5,426 m, Iztaccíhuatl at 5,230 m, and Nevado de Toluca at 4,680 m, respectively.
The Valley of Mexico is roughly 35 miles east-to-west and 50 miles north-to-south. It lies between the Sierra Madre Occidental (to the west) and the Sierra Madre Oriental (to the east) mountain ranges. The valley is an endorheic basin, with no natural outflow. As a result, before the 20th century, much or most of the valley was covered with a chain of inter-related lakes, including five lakes: Texcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, Zumpango, and Xaltocan. These have since been drained and little of their original expanse remains. The greater Mexico City urban area covers almost the entire valley today.
Originally much of the valley lay beneath the waters of Lake of Texcoco, a system of interconnected saline and freshwater lakes. The Aztecs built dikes to separate the fresh water used to raise crops in chinampas and to prevent recurrent floods. These dikes were destroyed during the siege of Tenochtitlan, and during colonial times the Spanish regularly drained the lake to prevent floods.
Lake Texcoco (Spanish: Lago de Texcoco) was a natural lake formation within the Valley of Mexico, a basin with an average elevation of 2,236 m above mean sea level located in the southern highlands of Mexico's central altiplano. It formerly extended over a large portion in the southern half of the basin, where it was the largest of an interconnected chain of five major and several smaller lakes (the other main lakes being Xaltocan, Zumpago, Chalco and Xochimilco lakes). During periods of high water levels, typically after the May–October rainy seasons, the lakes were often joined as a single body of water, at an average elevation of 2,242 m above mean sea level. In the drier winter months the lake system tended to separate into individual bodies of water, a flow that was mitigated by the construction of dikes and causeways in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology. Lake Texcoco was the lowest-lying of all the lakes, and occupied the minimum elevation in the valley so that water ultimately drained towards it. The Valley of Mexico has been a closed basin since at least the Late Pliocene, and the lakes subsequently had no natural surface outflow, with the drainage basin forming an endorheic system.
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