Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Mexico City
The Centro Historico in six hours
The great square and the sinking cathedral, the Aztec temple beside it, and the art deco palace along the avenue.
Mexico City is built on a drained lake and the historic centre is visibly sinking into it, which you can see in the cathedral floor. Everything here is within a few blocks of the Zocalo, one of the largest city squares in the world. The Templo Mayor is the one that surprises people: an Aztec pyramid found under the street in 1978 and excavated in place.
The route, stop by stop
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Zocalo
Officially the Plaza de la Constitucion and one of the largest squares anywhere. The flag in the middle is lowered daily at six.
25 min here Walk here → -
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
Two hundred and forty years in the building and sinking unevenly ever since. A plumb line inside shows the tilt.
30 min here Walk here → -
Templo Mayor
The main Aztec temple of Tenochtitlan, found by electricity workers in 1978. The museum behind holds what came out of it.
60 min here Walk here → -
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Art nouveau outside, art deco inside, with Rivera and Siqueiros murals upstairs. The building has sunk four metres.
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Alameda Central
The oldest public park in the Americas, laid out in 1592 on an Aztec marketplace.
25 min here Walk here → -
Torre Latinoamericana
The observation deck on the 44th floor. It survived the 1985 earthquake undamaged, which made its engineers famous.
30 min here Walk here →
More in Mexico City
Every walking route in Mexico City, or the full Mexico City guide for where to stay and what a day costs.