La Ciudad de México
Before I arrived in México City, I knew that México City was intensely populated but I was still overwhelmed by the amount of people. We arrived to Mexico City around 3 PM in the hottest part of the day and began walking to the Palacio Nacional. The streets were jam packed with thousands of vendors selling anything that you could think of. The Palacio Nacional is located in México City’s main plaza, Plaza de la Constitución. This site has been a palace for the ruling class of México since the Aztec empire, and much of the current palace's building materials are from the original one that belonged to Moctezuma II. Hardly any of the palace has been remodeled in order to preserve the murals of Diego Rivera. In the main stairwell is a mural of Riveras that covers 4800 square feet!!! The mural depicts the history of México from 1521 to 1930. I could have spent hours admiring this mural alone. It is interesting to see his views and interpretation of history throughout the years. This mural took him 6 years to complete but it is definitely one of the coolest things that I have seen in my life. I have pictures below of the murals but here is a website that explains the murals a little bit more and better quality of pictures. http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/mexico/mexicocity/rivera/muralsintro.html
After touring around Palacio Nacional, we walked to Templo Mayor. Templo Mayor was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, which is now México City. When Tenochtitlan was overtaken by Cortés and his men, Cortés ordered that the temple be sacked of all of its treasures and artifacts and that it should be buried. A church was built over part of the western half, which later became the main church. Over the years, Archeologists have uncovered the temple finding thousands of artifacts including an 11 foot in diameter disk which depicted Coyolxauhqui, the moon goddess, and dated back to the end of the 15th century. The temple is not fully uncovered due to not being able to tear down the historical church. It's a shame. Although it is a very nice church as you can see in my pictures below, it would be cool to discover what else lies in store under there.
After touring around Palacio Nacional, we walked to Templo Mayor. Templo Mayor was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, which is now México City. When Tenochtitlan was overtaken by Cortés and his men, Cortés ordered that the temple be sacked of all of its treasures and artifacts and that it should be buried. A church was built over part of the western half, which later became the main church. Over the years, Archeologists have uncovered the temple finding thousands of artifacts including an 11 foot in diameter disk which depicted Coyolxauhqui, the moon goddess, and dated back to the end of the 15th century. The temple is not fully uncovered due to not being able to tear down the historical church. It's a shame. Although it is a very nice church as you can see in my pictures below, it would be cool to discover what else lies in store under there.
Murals of the palace
Perdido (Lost)
After a couple hours of walking around the city and having dinner, it was finally time to head back to the hotel. Brett and my room happened to be on the 24th floor that offered a gorgeous view of the surrounding city. Later that night, we decided to head to this Irish bar that was supposed to be 15 minutes away. TOPS!! It just happened that the cab driver we had wasn’t to familiar with the city and what should have been a 15 minute taxi ride, ended up taking just over an hour. The cab driver asked over 10 different people for directions and got pulled over and ticketed. Ohh and of course, we were charged for the full ride; luckily the taxis in México are ridiculously cheap and it ended up only being a little over $10. The Irish bar that we went to was a blast though, so we got some drinks there before heading back to the hotel.
Museos!!
After an amazing breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the Museo Nacional de Antropología in México City. This museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from the pre-Columbian heritage of México, such as the Piedra del Sol (the Stone of the Sun), and the 16th-century Aztec statue of Xochipilli. This museum was constructed in 1964 and the architectural of this museum is incredible; including a main patio with a pond and a large square concrete umbrella and rooms for exhibits surrounding the patio. I took hundreds of pictures of the exhibits so below are some of the exhibits that we saw.
