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antonio0qs · 29th October 2007, 01:07

mexico city

Mexico City is the most important economic, industrial and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city with 8,720,916 inhabitants in 2005. Greater Mexico City (Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México) incorporates 58 adjacent municipalities of the State of Mexico and 1 municipality of the state of Hidalgo, according to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments. In 2005 Greater Mexico City had a population of 19.2 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world.

Mexico City is located in the Valley of Mexico also called the Valley of Anáhuac, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,349 feet). It was originally built by the Aztecs in 1325 on an island of Lake Texcoco. The city was almost completely destroyed in the siege of 1521, and was redesigned and rebuilt in the following years following the Spanish urban standards. In 1524 the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, and as of 1585 it is officially known as Ciudad de México.

Mexico City is one of the most important cultural centers in the world boasting more museums than any other city. It is also the fourth city in number of theaters after New York City, London and Toronto.

Having been capital of a vast pre-Hispanic empire, the richest viceroyalty within the Spanish Empire, and capital of the Mexican federation, Mexico City has a rich history of artistic expressions. Since the Mesoamerican pre-Classical period the inhabitants of the settlements around Lake Texcoco produced many works of arts, some of which are today displayed at the National Museum of Anthropology and the Templo Mayor Museum. While many pieces of pottery and stone-engraving have survived, the great majority of the Amerindian iconography was destroyed during the Conquest of Mexico.

The Historic Center (Centro Histórico), the University City and the "floating gardens" of Xochimilco in the southern borough have been declared World Heritage Sites by the UNESCO.

Mexico City is also one of the most important economic hubs of Latin America. The city proper (Federal District) produces 21.8% of the country's gross domestic product.[25] According to a study conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Greater Mexico City (19.2 million people) had a GDP of $315 billion in 2005 (at purchasing power parity), ranking as the eighth-richest urban agglomeration in GDP in the world after the greater areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, London and Osaka/Kobe respectively and the richest in Latin America, in 2020 it will climb to the seventh-largest with a $608 billion placing Osaka/Kobe in the eighth position.[3][26] Mexico City alone would be the 30th largest economy in the world[27] with a higher GDP than whole countries like Sweden and Switzerland.

The country hosted the Football World Cup in 1970 and 1986 and Azteca is the only stadium in the world to host the final match of the Football World Cup twice. Mexico City also hosted the 1968 Olympic Games, winning bids against Buenos Aires, Lyon and Detroit, and being the only Latin American city to host such an event. Mexico City hosted the 1955 Pan American Games and then the 1975 Pan American Games after Santiago and São Paulo withdrew.