México City

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México City

México City, the capital of México and its largest city, is located in the valley of México in the plateau of central México, centered on the site of a lake that is now mostly drained. There are 23.6 million metropolitan residents.¹ Famous buildings and monuments include the Torre Mayor, the tallest (225 meters); the pyramid-topped Torre Latinoamericana; the angel-topped Column of Victory; the National Palace; the tube-topped Torre WTC (Word Trade Center); an equestrian statue of King Charles IV of Spain (España), nicknamed El Caballito; and the Templo Mayor or Great Pyramid, a 60 meter Aztec-era ruin. The city is centered on the old Aztec capital and is named for that group's name for themselves.

Within the metropolitan area is Ecatepec, also known as Ecatepec de Morelos, with a current population of nearly 2 million.² It is famous for the site of the execution of José María Morelos Pavón by the Spanish in 1815, and for the finding, in 1995, of the remains of an 11 thousand year-old mammoth. It became a city in 1980.

The third city in the metropolitan area with more than a million residents is Nezhualcóyotl, or Neza for short, located in the drained portion of Lake Texcoco and having about 1.2 million residents.² The José Portillo (or Neza) Stadium hosted the 1986 World Cup.

The earliest major settlement, Cuicuilco, was in the south of the present city, below the volano, Xitle, which destroyed the city in the first millenium, with the survivors moving north to Teotihuacán. The site was nonetheless re-settled later in the millenium. In the 20th century the area became part of México City.

Tenayuca, located in today's Tlalnepantla just outside the city limits³ was a important 13th century city state; its founders became assimulated to the Nahuatl culture by century's end. The city was conquered in the 14th and abandoned in the 16th. Its famous buildings are a double pyramid.

Texcoco is located on what used to be the eastern shore of the lake with its name. Today it is a city of about 130 thousand² within the metropolitan area. In the early 14th century it was the leading city state in central México. Although conquered before the end of the century by Azcapotzalco it found vengeance through a junior partnership in the Triple Alliance with the Mexica people.

Azcapotzalco, whose name means Anthill in Nahuatl, is located in the northwest of the current city, and became pre-eminent in the late 14th century but was conquered by the Aztec-dominated Triple Alliance in the early 15th century. It remained a separate city until 1928. Later in the 20th century it was formally incorporated into México City.

Tenochtitlan, whose name means Prickly Pear Among the Rocks, was founded in the south end of an island in what was then part of Lake Texcoco and is today Zócalo Square. It was connected to the mainland by causeways with movable bridges. The lake was dammed to make part of it fresh. Tenochtitlan arose to pre-eminence in the early 15th century as the senior partner of the Triple Alliance, which is retrospectively called the Aztec Empire. It fell to the Spanish in the early 16th century, who renamed it México City⁴ when they built their colonial capital atop the ruins. When México became a nation in the early 19th century, México City became its capital.

There are four World Heritage Sites. The Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of México), built between 1949 and 1952, is most famous for the Biblioteca Central (Central Library) building, which is covered with tile-art by Juan O'Gorman. The Historic Centre of México City and Xochimilco includes the cathedral and the Palacio de las Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) from the post-Columbian period, and the Templo Mayor (Great Temple) from Aztec times. In the south end of the city is Xochimilco with its famous chinampas (floating gardens). The Luis Barragán House and Studio, from 1948, exhibits that architects work. Beyond the city proper, in Cuernavaca, is one of the 16th century monasteries that are part of a World Heritage Site. This one is now the city's cathedral.

Name	Year	Population⁵	Political entity
Cuicuilco	430 BCE		Cuicuilco⁶
Cuicuilco	200 BCE		Cuicuilco⁶
Tenayuca	1200 CE	50,000⁷	Tenayuca⁸
Texcoco	1300 CE	50,000⁷	Texcoco⁸
Azcapotzalco	1400 CE	⁹	Azcapotzalco
Tenochtitlan	1500 CE	80,000	Texcoco and Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan (Triple Alliance or Aztec Empire)
México City	1600 CE	58,000	Virreinato de Nueva España (Viceroyalty of New Spain, part of the Reino de España or Kingdom of Spain)
México City	1700 CE	85,000	Virreinato de Nueva España (Viceroyalty of New Spain, part of the Reino de España or Kingdom of Spain)
México City	1800 CE	128,000	Virreinato de Nueva España (Viceroyalty of New Spain, part of the Reino de España or Kingdom of Spain)
México City	1900 CE	368,000	Estados Unidos Méxicanos (United States of Mexico)
México City	2000 CE	8,605,000	Estados Unidos Méxicanos (United States of Mexico)

External references

Cathedral, México City

Historical maps

map showing Cuicuilco, 430 and 200 BCE

map showing part of Teotihuacán, 100 to 622 CE

map showing part of the Toltec Empire, 700 to 1100 CE

map showing Tenayuca, 1200 CE

map showing Texcoco and Tenayuca, 1300 CE

map showing part of Azcapotzalco, 1400 CE

map showing part of Texcoco and Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan (Aztec Empire), 1500 CE

map showing part of Virreinato de Nueva España (Viceroyalty of New Spain, part of the Reino de Espa&ntiled;a or Kingdom of Spain), 1600 to 1800 CE

map showing part of Estados Unidos Méxicanos (United States of Mexico), 1900 CE

map showing part of Estados Unidos Méxicanos (United States of Mexico), 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. world-gazetteer.com, 2010 calculation, accessed 11/19/2011.
2. world-gazetteer.com, 2010 calculations, accessed 12/17/2011.
3. Tlalnepantla was within the city limits during the colonial period and up until 1825. Tlalnepantla is sometimes called Tlalnepantla de Baz. The name refers to a mission founded "mid-way" (tlalnepantla) betwwen the ruins of Tenayuca and another native city. It was declared a city in 1948.
4. Originally spelled Mixico.
5. Estimate for per-20th century population in Tables of the World's Largest Cities or in the Cities of the Americas tables, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987). In 430 BCE he listed it between Pyongyang, which had less than 35 thousand, and Taiyüan, which had more than 30 thousand. In 200 BCE he listed it between Sopara, which had less than 38 thousand, and Meroë, which had more than 35 thousand. Estimates must be taken cautiously give how much of the remains are buried under up to 10 meters of lava. México City, by one name or another, was the largest city in the area (México State, Morelos, Federal District, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Colima, Michoacán and Guanajuato) in 430 and 200 BCE, and 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000 CE. It was second largest in the world in 2010 (and perhaps in 2000).
6. Cuicuilco was pre-literate so I lack confidence that this was their name for their city in pre-Aztec times.
7. Some would place the rise to prominence later in the century.
8. Early in the century its rulers were pre-literate (or probably so) and so I lack confidence that the name later used as the one in earlier times.
9. Azcapotzalco in 1400 CE was listed by Chandler, ibid., between Bursa and Ayutia. Bursa had about 70 thousand residents, and Ayutia was listed above Genoa, which had 66 thousand.