The megalopolis of greater Mexico City has TWENTY ONE MILLION residents. It covers just over THREE THOUSAND square miles, making it the third largest metropolitan area in the world.
There are over NINE MILLION cars, ONE HUNDRED FORTY THOUSAND taxis. FOUR MILLION ride the Metro rapid transit system DAILY.
It has THOUSANDS of churches, TENS OF THOUSANDS of restaurants and bars, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of vendors selling every product known to mankind.
The city is precariously built on mostly swamp, surrounded by mountains, including the active volcano Popocatépetl just 40 miles away. In 1985 a magnitude 8.1 earthquake killed over TEN THOUSAND people.
Legend has it that a nomadic people known as the Mexica, were told by their god Huitzilopochtli, that when they found an eagle devouring a snake on top of a cactus, they would have found their promised land.
In 1325 the eagle appeared on an island on Lake Texcoco.
They named the place Tenochtitlan, it was located in what is now the Historic Center of Mexico City.
EIGHT HUNDRED years after the Mexica settled Tenochtitlan and FIVE HUNDRED years after the destruction of the grand city by Spanish Conquistadors, this place has been cursed with foreign invaders, revolutions, political intrigue, chaos, natural disasters, broken dreams, and massacres.
Montezuma’s Revenge was more than a stomach ailment.
Yet for many it is still the promised land of the eagle, snake and cacti.
