About Mexico

about mexico

Country located between the United States and Central America, whose territory was the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations in the world: the Mesoamerican. The name of the country comes from the Nahuatl language, Mēxihco, a word with which the ancient Mexicas or Aztecs baptized their capital (Mexico-Tenochtitlán) and whose translation is a matter of debate. Some theories suggest that it would mean "place of Mexihtli", one of the names of the Aztec tutelary god Huitzilopochtli.

Mexico is home to numerous archaeological sites from pre-Columbian times, as well as indigenous monuments (pyramids) and much evidence of its colonial history. This makes it the most visited tourist destination in Latin America and the ninth in the world.

Like all Latin American countries, Mexico exhibits an important cultural and racial mix, in which indigenous people, European whites and African blacks took part. This explains the enormous cultural wealth of the region.

The total area of the Mexican territory is 1,964,375 km2, which makes it the third largest country in Latin America and the fourteenth largest in the world. Almost all of this surface is found on the North American plate, together with the US and Canada, except for the Mexican insular surface (5,127 km2). The Mexican capital is Mexico City, built since the conquest on the ruins of Mexico-Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital. It is located in the Valley of Mexico, at about 2,240 meters above sea level, and is one of the largest population centers on the continent and in the world, with a total of 21,892,724 inhabitants in its metropolitan area (according to the 2015 census).

This city is in the Federal District (known as DF), which is accompanied by 31 other federal entities called states, provided with relative political, legal and legislative autonomy.