Mexico City, Mexico

I didn't mean to take this long to post about this card - I received it last September! Anyway, the lovely Ana surprised me with this great view of Mexico City from her holidays. :)

Mexico City, officially known as México, D. F., or simply D.F.) is the Federal District (Distrito Federal), capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole. Mexico City is the country's largest city as well as its most important political, cultural, educational and financial center.

As an "alpha" global city Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in North America. It is located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de México), a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres. The city consists of sixteen boroughs.

The 2009 estimated population for the city proper was around 8.84 million people, and has a land area of 1,485 square kilometres. According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the Mexico City metropolitan area population is 21.2 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere, the fifth largest agglomeration and the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world.

The Greater Mexico City has a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$390 billion in 2008, making Mexico City urban agglomeration the eighth richest metropolitan area in the world. The city was responsible for generating 21% of Mexico's Gross Domestic Product and the metropolitan area accounted for 34% of total national GDP.

The city was originally built on an island of Lake Texcoco by the Aztecs in 1325 as Tenochtitlan, which 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 served as 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.

The Historic Centre of Mexico City is also a Unesco World Heritage site. It has five Aztec temples, the ruins of which have been identified, a cathedral (the largest on the continent) and some fine 19th- and 20th-century public buildings such as the Palacio de las Bellas Artes.

Mexico City

Another card from Cipa. I wasn't originally going to post this one, but I love the story on the back of the card.



There are many versions in popular Mexican culture of supposed accounts of the mountains in Aztec mythology. For instance, in one version Iztaccíhuatl was a princess in an Aztec tribe. When she came of age, her father wanted her to marry an Aztec prince; however, she did not like any of them. One day by chance, she saw a prince named Popocatépetl in the street. He was the prince of a different indigenous tribe in Mexico (the Chichimeca tribe), so when he wrote a letter asking the emperor if he could marry his daughter, the emperor was furious and would not allow it. Iztaccíhuatl insisted on the marriage, though, so the emperor agreed to it on one condition: Popo and his tribe must help the emperor's troops in a war against their enemy. The emperor intended on the prince dying in the war.

Popo and the rest of the Chichimecas joined the Aztecs in war, but the Aztecs abandoned them at the height of the battle. Miraculously, the Chichimecas were still triumphant without the Aztecs' help. Even so, the emperor told his daughter that Popo had died in battle, and he wrote a letter to Popo saying that Iztaccíhuatl had died of sadness in his absence. Popo did not believe the emperor, and sneaked into the palace to reunite with Iztac. Together, they ran away to get married. When the emperor found out, he disowned his daughter and proclaimed she was dead to him.

Iztac and Popo built a humble house and lived happily for a few years. Suddenly, Iztac got sick and died, in spite of Popo's efforts to save her. An earthquake occurred, and two volcanoes formed. A voice from the heavens ordered Popo to bring Iztac's body to the peak of one of the volcanoes. He obeyed and placed Iztac's body on top of a bed of flowers on the volcano. Popo then lay down next to her and waited to die. Years later, snow covered their dead bodies and they became two mountains. Popo became the mountain with smoke, (known as montaña humeante "smoking mountain") and Iztac became the mountain without (known as mujer blanca "white woman"). The two mountains are named after the lovers to this day.