Mexico City, capital and largest city of Mexico, in  the Distrito Federal (Federal District), and in the world.  At the 1990 census, Mexico City    proper had a population of 8,236,960. The metropolitan area had 15,047,685 people, making it the largest urban area in the world.  More than half of Mexico's industrial output is produced in or near Mexico City. Manufactures include textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, electrical and electronic items, steel, and transportation equipment. Major highways and railroads radiate from the city to all parts of the country. It is the l The size and grandeur of the city are staggering. It is not only the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Western Hemisphere, but also carries the burden of being the largest city the world has ever known.  The center of the city has historically been the Plaza of the Constitution, which occupies the site of the central square of the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. The city's rapid growth has created several problems, including air pollution, inadequate water supply, and the sinking of parts of the downtown area into the soft lake deposits that underlie much of the city. Points of  interest include the National Museum of Anthropology, which houses exhibits of pre-Columbian artifacts, and the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's most important religious shrine.

    Aztec records set the founding date of the city at 1325. The city, called Tenochtitlán, eventually  became the seat of the Aztec Empire. In 1521 Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés occupied and systematically leveled the great Aztec metropolis and built a new city on the ruins. From this new town, Spanish excursions explored and subdued the Native American inhabitants as far north as the present United States and south into Central America. Mexico City became the capital of all the Spanish provinces in the western hemisphere north of Costa Rica. During the Mexican War, the city was captured by U.S. forces in 1847 and held for five months. It was ruled by Emperor Maximilian and the French army from 1863 to 1867, when it was taken by President Benito Pablo Juárez.

    The center of the city has historically been the Zócalo, or Plaza of the Constitution, which occupies the site of the central square of the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, flanked by the massive baroque National Cathedral (begun 1573, completed 1675), the Municipal Palace (1720), and the National Palace (1792), containing the office of the president and the Senate. From the Zócalo the major avenue extends north to the Plaza of the Three Cultures, which has Aztec, Spanish colonial, and modern structures, and south to the sprawling Chapultepec Park, which contains several museums, a zoo, and Chapultepec Castle, the former presidential residence. The city's outward growth has created numerous suburbs and neighborhoods of great diversity, ranging from the elegant residential area of Pedregal, with its modernistic architecture, to the crowded squatter settlement of Netzahualcóyotl, located on the dry bed of Lake Texcoco.

    By the 1920s industrialization increased as mills and factories spread throughout the city. Between 1930 and 1950, the population more than doubled. In 1985 a devastating earthquake caused severe damage, leaving nearly 30,000 homeless and thousands more dead. Geography amplified the destruction because  the city lies on landfill heaped atop the spongy sediment of an ancient lake. When the quake struck, the compressed mud of the lake bed vibrated like a giant spring beneath the city.. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Mexico City made efforts to improve air quality and to protect the environment.
 
 

In the next table you will find information of Mexico city's population.
 

In the next gallery you will find pictures of Mexico city.