The Alameda Central is the oldest public park in the Americas, a leafy rectangle of trees, fountains and pathways in the heart of Mexico City, laid out in the late sixteenth century on land that had once been an Aztec marketplace and, more grimly, a site of executions during the Inquisition. Its name comes from the alamos, or poplars, originally planted there, and over the centuries it has been a fashionable promenade for the city's residents, redesigned and embellished in various styles, partic.....

Arena Mexico in Mexico City is the most famous venue for lucha libre, the colourful and theatrical style of professional wrestling that is one of the country's best-loved popular spectacles, and it is often called the Cathedral of Lucha Libre. Opened in 1956 and seating around sixteen thousand spectators, the arena is the home of the long-established Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, the world's oldest wrestling promotion, and it hosts regular bouts several times a week that draw a passionate and.....

The Ballet Folklorico de Mexico is a celebrated dance company that presents the traditional dances, music and costumes of Mexico's many regions in a polished theatrical spectacle, performing most famously on the stage of the magnificent Palacio de Bellas Artes in the centre of Mexico City. Founded in 1952 by the dancer and choreographer Amalia Hernandez, the company drew on extensive research into the folk traditions of the country to create a repertoire that transforms regional dances into a v.....

Crowning a hill in the great Chapultepec park of Mexico City, Chapultepec Castle is the only true castle in North America to have housed reigning sovereigns, and its commanding position has made it a witness to much of the nation's history. Construction began in 1785 on the orders of the Spanish viceroy, on a hill the ancient Aztecs had held sacred, and over the following century the building served in turn as a military academy, an imperial residence and a presidential home. During the Mexican.....

Within the vast green expanse of Chapultepec park in Mexico City, the botanical garden gathers a wide variety of Mexican and tropical plants into a tranquil enclave devoted to the country's extraordinary botanical wealth. Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse nations on earth, home to an enormous range of plant species, and the garden sets out to display and conserve a representative selection, with particular attention to the cacti and other succulents for which the country is famous, .....

In the fashionable Roma district of Mexico City, Juncal Tablao Flamenco keeps alive the art of Spanish flamenco, presenting live performances of song, guitar and dance in the intimate setting of a traditional tablao paired with Spanish and Mediterranean cuisine. The tablao, a small venue where flamenco is performed close to the audience, is the natural home of the art form, and Juncal recreates that atmosphere far from its Andalusian origins, billing itself as one of the leading flamenco venues .....

In the Roma Sur district of Mexico City, the Mercado Medellin is a traditional covered market that has earned a particular reputation for its cosmopolitan range of goods, drawing shoppers from across the city in search of products that are hard to find elsewhere. Like the many neighbourhood markets that anchor daily life in the capital, it offers the usual abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, flowers, spices and prepared food, but it is best known for its international character,.....

Performances of Mexican folkloric dance, presented for visitors to the capital, offer a vivid and colourful introduction to the regional traditions of the country through staged spectacles of music, dance and costume. The most renowned of these is the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, the company founded in 1952 by the dancer and choreographer Amalia Hernandez, which has come to be regarded as the foremost folk-dance ensemble in the nation and performs regularly at the magnificent Palacio de Bellas A.....

Standing on the famous Plaza Garibaldi in the centre of Mexico City, the Museum of Tequila and Mezcal, known by its Spanish initials MUTEM, is devoted to the two agave spirits that are among the most emblematic products of Mexico, and to the mariachi music with which the square has long been associated. The museum opened in December 2010 as the centrepiece of a wider project to renovate and revitalise the historic Plaza Garibaldi, traditionally the gathering place of mariachi musicians who wait.....

The grandest cultural building in Mexico, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, or Palace of Fine Arts, rises in gleaming white marble at the edge of the Alameda Central in the historic heart of Mexico City, its great tiled dome a landmark of the capital. The palace had a long and troubled birth: commissioned during the rule of Porfirio Diaz in the early years of the twentieth century and designed by the Italian architect Adamo Boari in an opulent Art Nouveau style, its construction was interrupted by th.....