Mexico City Pictures

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An aerial shot of sprawling Mexico City

Click bottom image to see more Mexico City or Teotihuacan Pyramids or the Great Pyramid of Cholula

Mexico City is one of the most crowded and polluted cities on the planet, in addition to being being 2,200m above sea level so oxygen is in short supply. Tourists do need to see the city and its sights, but not for long, it is not the best perspective from which to view this colourful and fascinating country.

Mexico City's Cathedral and the Zocalo, the central square.

Mexico City, the capital of Mexico of course, was created by the Aztecs, a group of outcasts from a northern tribe who were banished for their belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice, unlike the builders of Teotihuacan, the Toltecs, who did not use human sacrifice and disappeared for no apparent reason long before the Aztecs slunk into town.

Mexico City's Cathedral.

The Maya people further south in what is now the state of Yucatan and neighbouring country Guatemala also thought it essential to take human life to placate or encourage various gods.

Human sacrifice as practiced by the Aztecs and Maya generally involved captured enemies and was a respectable, even honourable way to die so when prisoners were in short supply or gods required someone specific local volunteers were used, sometimes drugged, sometimes not. More...

A tiled building north of the Zocalo. Unfortunately few of the city's grand old houses remain standing.

The illustrated history of Mexico via murals by Diego Rivera at Mexico City's Palacio Nacional are a stunning and horribly descriptive work of art...

...and make you wish the Aztecs had managed to sacrifice a lot more Conquistadors. More Mexico City Pictures.

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