Mexico City administrative buildings

Greater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico (Spanish: Zona metropolitana del Valle de México). It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent municipalities of the State of Mexico and Hidalgo. Mexico City's metropolitan area is the economic, political, and cultural hub of Mexico. In recent years it has reduced its relative importance in domestic manufacturing, but has kept its dominant role in the country’s economy thanks to an expansion of its tertiary activities. The area is also one of the powerhouse regions of Latin America, generating approximately $200 billion in GDP growth or 10 percent of the regional total.As of 2020, 21,804,515 people lived in Greater Mexico City, making it the largest metropolitan area in North America. Covering an area of 7,866.1 square kilometres (3,037.1 sq mi), it is surrounded by thin strips of highlands separating it from other adjacent metropolitan areas, together with which it makes up the Mexico City megalopolis.

The Mexico City Alebrije Parade is an annual event to honor Mexican handcrafts and folk art, especially a hard kind of papier-mâché called “cartonería” and the creation of fantastic figures with it called “alebrijes.” Alebrijes are chimera-like creatures credited to artisan Pedro Linares painted in bright colors. The alebrijes for the parade are larger than anything Linares created, up to four meters in height and three meters in width. The parade begins on midday on a Saturday in late October in the historic center of Mexico City. The giant creatures are accompanied by musicians, clowns, people in costume and more, giving the event a Carnival-like atmosphere. After the parade the creations are judged with prizes awarded. There are also related literary and musical compositions.

The Church of San Bernardo (Spanish: Iglesia de San Bernardo) stands at the corner of Avenida 20 de Noviembre and Venustiano Carranza Street just south of the Zocalo or main plaza of Mexico City. It was part of a convent of the same name that was founded in 1636, but was closed along with all convents and monasteries during the La Reforma period in 1861. Currently, only the church remains of the convent complex.The church was built between 1685 and 1687 in Baroque style.

The bust of Cuauhtémoc was created by artist Jesús Fructuoso Contreras at the end of the 19th century. It was originally conceived by the artist as part of a set of sculptures of important Mexican historical figures that were installed in the Paseo de la Reforma between the years 1895 and 1899; however, the bust went on to spend many years housed in the atrium of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral and only seen by the public during commemoration ceremonies. In 2007, as part of a remodeling effort in the Centro Histórico, the bust was moved to its current location at the Plaza de la Constitucion in Mexico City, Mexico.

The Zócalo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsokalo]) is the common name of the main square in central Mexico City. Prior to the colonial period, it was the main ceremonial center in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square", and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Square). This name does not come from any of the Mexican constitutions that have governed the country but rather from the Cádiz Constitution, which was signed in Spain in the year 1812. Even so, it is almost always called the Zócalo today. Plans were made to erect a column as a monument to Independence, but only the base, or zócalo (meaning "plinth"), was built. The plinth was buried long ago, but the name has lived on. Many other Mexican towns and cities, such as Oaxaca, Mérida, and Guadalajara, have adopted the word zócalo to refer to their main plazas, but not all.It has been a gathering place for Mexicans since Aztec times, having been the site of Mexican ceremonies, the swearing-in of viceroys, royal proclamations, military parades, Independence ceremonies, and modern religious events such as the festivals of Holy Week and Corpus Christi. It has received foreign heads of state and is the main venue for both national celebrations and national protests. The Zócalo and surrounding blocks have played a central role in the city's planning and geography for almost 700 years. The site is just one block southwest of the Templo Mayor, which, according to Aztec legend and mythology, was considered the center of the universe.

The Monumento a la Fundación de México-Tenochtitlán is installed near the government offices in the historic center of Mexico City, Mexico. The monument, designed by Carlos Marquina, was dedicated in 1970. Part of the sculpture depicts an eagle atop a cactus, eating a snake, similar to the imagery on the flag of Mexico.

Zazacatla is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of Mesoamerica's central Mexican plateau region, in Xochitepec, dating to the mid-Formative period of Mesoamerican chronology. The site was first excavated in 2006 underneath a modern commercial and housing development site, some 13 km (8.1 mi) south of Cuernavaca, capital of the Mexican state of Morelos, and 40 km (25 mi) south of Mexico City. Initial investigations by archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) reported finding evidence of Olmec cultural influences at the site, the first such known for the western Morelos region.

Old Portal de Mercaderes in the historic center of Mexico City was and is the west side of the main plaza (otherwise known as the "Zócalo"). This side of the plaza has been occupied by commercial structures since the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in 1521. Today the west side of the square is dominated by two sets of buildings with Madero Street dividing them as it runs west from the Zocalo to the Palace of Bellas Artes. The buildings on the north side of Madero is occupied by offices on the upper floors and shops at ground level. The southside buildings are dominated on the ground floor by fine jewelry stores, marking the beginning of the "Centro Joyero Zocalo." This center extends west for two block engulfing Palma Street between Madero and 16 de Septiembre streets. Most of the upper floors of the buildings here are occupied by rooms associated with the Hotel de Ciudad de Mexico and the Hotel Majestic.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Spanish: Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) is the Mexican institution serving as the country's federal high court and the spearhead organisation for the judiciary of the Mexican Federal Government. It consists of eleven magistrates, known as ministers of the court, one of whom is designated the court's president. Judges of the SCJN are appointed for 15 years. They are ratified through affirmation by the Senate from a list proposed by the President of the Republic. The ministers chosen will select from among themselves who shall be the President of the Court to serve a four-year period; any given minister may serve out more than one term as president, but may not do so consecutively.

The 33rd federal electoral district of the Federal District (Distrito electoral federal 33 del Distrito Federal) is a defunct federal electoral district of Mexico. Occupying a portion of what is today Mexico City, it was in existence from 1978 to 1996. During that time, it returned one deputy to the Chamber of Deputies for each three-year legislative session by means of the first-past-the-post system, electing its first in the 1979 mid-terms and its last in the 1994 general election. Votes cast in the district also counted towards the calculation of proportional representation ("plurinominal") deputies elected from the country's electoral regions. The 31st to 40th districts were abolished in the Federal Electoral Institute's 1996 redistricting process because the capital's population no longer warranted that number of seats in Congress.

The 35th federal electoral district of the Federal District (Distrito electoral federal 35 del Distrito Federal) is a defunct federal electoral district of Mexico. Occupying a portion of what is today Mexico City, it was in existence from 1978 to 1996. During that time, it returned one deputy to the Chamber of Deputies for each three-year legislative session by means of the first-past-the-post system, electing its first in the 1979 mid-terms and its last in the 1994 general election. Votes cast in the district also counted towards the calculation of proportional representation ("plurinominal") deputies elected from the country's electoral regions. The 31st to 40th districts were abolished in the Federal Electoral Institute's 1996 redistricting process because the capital's population no longer warranted that number of seats in Congress.

Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México, locally [sjuˈða(ð) ðe ˈmexiko] (listen); abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: Altepetl Mexico) is the capital, largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. It is one of the country's 32 federal entities. Mexico City is one of the most important cultural and financial centers in the world. It is located in the Valley of Mexico in the high central plateau, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,350 ft). The city has 16 boroughs or demarcaciones territoriales, which are in turn divided into neighborhoods or colonias. The 2020 population for the city proper was 9,209,944, with a land area of 1,495 square kilometers (577 sq mi). According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the population of Greater Mexico City is 21,804,515, which makes it the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the world, the second-largest urban agglomeration in the Western Hemisphere (behind São Paulo, Brazil), and the largest Spanish-speaking city (city proper) in the world. Greater Mexico City has a GDP of $411 billion in 2011, which makes it one of the most productive urban areas in the world. The city was responsible for generating 15.8% of Mexico's GDP, and the metropolitan area accounted for about 22% of the country's GDP. If it were an independent country in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America.Mexico's capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by indigenous people. The city was originally built on a group of islands in Lake Texcoco by the Mexica (Azteca) in 1325 as Tenochtitlan. It was almost completely destroyed in the 1521 Siege of Tenochtitlan and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, and as of 1585, it was officially known as Ciudad de México (Mexico City). Mexico City was the political, administrative, and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the federal district was created in 1824. After years of demanding greater political autonomy, residents were finally given the right to elect both a head of government and the representatives of the unicameral Legislative Assembly by election in 1997. Ever since, left-wing parties (first the Party of the Democratic Revolution and later the National Regeneration Movement) have controlled both of them. The city has several progressive policies, such as abortion on demand, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage. On 29 January 2016, it ceased to be the Federal District (Spanish: Distrito Federal or D.F.) and is now officially known as Ciudad de México (or CDMX), with a greater degree of autonomy. A clause in the Constitution of Mexico, however, prevents it from becoming a state within the Mexican federation, as it is the seat of power in the country, unless the capital of the country were to be relocated elsewhere.