the Plaza de la Constitución is the beating heart of the city. It is more commonly known as the Zócalo.

Today, the lovely tree-filled Alameda Central Park attracts pedestrians, cotton-candy vendors, strollers, lovers, and organ grinders. Long ago, the site of the Alameda was an Aztec marketplace. When the conquistadors took over in the mid-1500s, heretics were burned at the stake there under the Spanish Inquisition. In 1592, the governor of New Spain, Viceroy Luis de Velasco, converted it to a public park.

Other must-sees include the Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City's largest park

This church was founded by Hernán Cortéz soon after the Conquest. A stone marker on Pino Suárez marks it as the spot where Cortéz and Montezuma reportedly met for the first time. Cortéz died in Spain in 1547, but his remains are in a vault inside the chapel (entered by a side door on República del Salvador). Vaults on the opposite wall store the remains of Cortéz's relatives. Notice the Orozco mural, The Apocalypse, on the choir ceiling.

Within the northern city limits is the famous Basilica of Guadalupe, not just another church, but the central place of worship for Mexico's patron saint, and the home of the image responsible for uniting pre-Hispanic Indian mysticism with Catholic beliefs. The Virgin of Guadalupe is the most revered image in the country, and you will no doubt see her countenance wherever you travel in Mexico.

The basilica is located on the site where, on December 9, 1531, a poor Indian named Juan Diego is reputed to have seen a vision of a beautiful lady in a blue mantle. The local bishop, Zumarraga, was reluctant to confirm that Juan had indeed seen the Virgin Mary, so he asked the peasant for some evidence. Juan saw the vision a second time, on December 12, and when he asked her for proof, she instructed him to collect the roses that began blooming in the rocky soil at Juan Diego's feet. He gathered the flowers in his cloak and returned to the bishop. When he unfurled his cloak, the flowers dropped to the ground and the image of the Virgin was miraculously emblazoned on the rough-hewn cloth. The bishop immediately ordered the building of a church on the spot, and upon its completion the image was hung in a place of honor, framed in gold. Since that time, millions of the devout and the curious have come to view the miraculous image that experts, it is said, are at a loss to explain. The blue-mantled Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico.

So heavy was the flow of visitors--many approached for hundreds of yards on their knees--that the old church, already fragile, was insufficient to handle them. An audacious New Basilica was built, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vazquez, the same architect who did the breathtaking Museo Nacional de Antropología. The miracle cloak hangs behind bullet-proof glass above the altar. Electric people-movers going in two directions move the crowds a distance below the cloak. If you want to see it again, take the people mover going in the opposite direction; you can do it as many times as you wish. To the right of the modern basilica is the Old Basilica, actually the second one built to house the cloak--the first one is higher up on the hill. Unfortunately, the Old Basilica is tilting precariously, and is not open to visitors. Restoration has been ongoing for at least 10 years, but is moving more rapidly now. To the back of it is the entrance to the Basilica Museum, with a very good display of religious art in restored rooms. One of the side chapels, with a silver altar, is adjacent to the museum. Outside the museum is a garden commemorating the moment Juan Diego showed the cloak to the archbishop. Numerous photographers with colorful backdrops gather there to capture your visit on film. At the top of the hill, behind the basilica, is the Panteón del Tepeyac, a cemetery for Mexico's more infamous folk (Santa Anna among them), and several gift shops specializing in religious objects and other folk art. The steps up this hill are lined with flowers, shrubs, and waterfalls, and the climb, although tiring, is worthwhile for the view from the top. If you visit Mexico City on December 12, you can witness the grand festival in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The square in front of the basilica fills up with the pious and the party-minded as prayers, dances, and a carnival atmosphere attract thousands of the devout. Many visitors combine a trip to the basilica with one to the ruins of Teotihuacán, since both are out of the city center in the same direction. It is virtually impossible to understand Mexico and its culture without appreciating the national devotion for the Virgin of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

An impressive, towering cathedral, begun in 1573 and finished in 1788, it blends baroque, neoclassic, and Mexican churrigueresque architecture. As you look around the cathedral and the Sagrario next to it, note how the building has sunk into the soft lake bottom beneath. The base of the facade is far from level and straight, and when one considers the weight of the immense towers, it's no surprise. Permanent scaffolding is in place to stabilize the building. In Mexico, the sacred ground of one religion often becomes the sacred ground of its successor. Cortés and his Spanish missionaries converted the Aztecs, tore down their temples, and used much of the stone to construct a church on this spot. The church they built was pulled down in 1628 while the present Metropolitan Cathedral was under construction. The building today has 5 naves and 14 chapels. As you wander past the small chapels, you may hear guides describing some of the cathedral's outstanding features: the tomb of Agustín Iturbide, placed here in 1838; a painting attributed to the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo; and the fact that the stone holy-water fonts ring like metal when tapped with a coin. Like many huge churches, it has catacombs underneath. The much older-looking church next to the cathedral is the chapel known as the Sagrario, another tour de force of Mexican baroque architecture built in the mid-1700s. As you walk around the outside of the cathedral, you will notice a reminder of medieval trade life. The west side is the gathering place of carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, painters, and electricians who have no shops. Craftspeople display the tools of their trades, sometimes along with pictures of their work.

The Alameda, which was once an Aztec marketplace, is now a pleasant and verdant park. The streets around the Alameda are lined with colonial mansions, skyscrapers, lively cafés, restaurants, shops and markets.

The nightlife district of Mexico City.

Begun in 1692 on the site of Moctezuma's "new" palace, this building became the site of Hernán Cortés's home and the residence of colonial viceroys. It has changed much in 300 years, taking on its present form in the late l920s when the top floor was added.

Just east of the cathedral are the remnants of the Templo Mayor, the Aztecs' principal temple, and the stunning museum that houses the artifacts discovered at the site.

Not really a park but still a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

Fun place, you can eat and drink on the small boats, listening to mariachi music! Check out the scary dude who lives on an island with thousands of dolls which he looks after.

The Museo del Templo Mayor (Museum of the Great Temple) opened in 1987. To enter it, take the walkway to the large building in the back portion of the site, which contains fabulous artifacts from on-site excavations. Inside the door, a model of Tenochtitlán gives a good idea of the scale of the vast city of the Aztecs. The rooms and exhibits are organized by subject on many levels around a central open space. You'll see some marvelous displays of masks, figurines, tools, jewelry, and other artifacts, including the huge stone wheel of the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui ("she with bells painted upon her face") on the second floor. The goddess ruled the night, the Aztecs believed, but died at the dawning of every day, slain and dismembered by her brother, Huitzilopochtli, the sun god.

Centro Historico (downtown Mexico City) is a good area to visit for things such as pirated DVDs, VCDs, X-Box, PS2 games and etc. Easily reachable by  Metro stop San Juan de Letran on Linea 8 (Green line), it's basically a street full of vendors of all sorts.

Great for watching the mariachi bands in the evening.

Although during her lifetime Frida Kahlo was known principally as the wife of muralist Diego Rivera, today her own art now surpasses his in popularity. Kahlo's life was dedicated both to her painting and her passionate, tortured love for her husband. Her emotional and physical pain--her spine was pierced during a serious streetcar accident in her youth--were the primary subjects of her canvases, many of which are self portraits. These paintings are now acknowledged as not only exceptional works of Latin American art, but some of the purest artistic representations of female strength and struggle ever created. As her paintings have surged in renown and price, so has an interest in the life of this courageous, provocative, and revolutionary woman.

Kahlo was born in this house on July 7,1910, and lived here with Rivera from 1929 to 1954. During the 1930s and 1940s it was a popular gathering place for intellectuals. As you wander through the rooms of this cornflower-blue house you'll get a glimpse of the life they led. Most of the rooms remain in their original state, with mementos everywhere. Tiny clay pots hang about; the names Diego and Frida are painted on the walls of the kitchen. In the studio upstairs, a wheelchair sits next to the easel with a partially completed painting surrounded by paintbrushes, palettes, books, photographs, and other paraphernalia of the couple's art-centered lives.

Frida and Diego collected pre-Columbian art, and many of the rooms contain jewelry and terra-cotta figurines from Teotihuacán and Tlatelolco. Kahlo even had a mock-up of a temple built in the garden to exhibit her numerous pots and statues. On the back side of the temple are several skulls from Chichén-Itzá. A cafe on the first floor serves light snacks, and the adjacent bookstore offers a full range of Kahlo and Rivera books and other commercialized memorabilia of this famous couple.

To learn more about their remarkable lives, I recommend Bertram D. Wolfe's Diego Rivera: His Life and Times and Hayden Herrara's Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo.

Aztec pyramid.

Palacio Nacional (National Palace), built on the site of an Aztec palace it now houses the offices of the president, a museum as well as murals of Diego Rivera.