Centro Histórico (Historic Centre)
Second in size only to the Moscow's Red Square, the Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución) is Mexico's political, religious and geographical core. Eerily quiet after dark, it is animated, crowded and alive during daylight hours as the venue for official ceremonies, city celebrations, demonstrations, rallies, impromptu performances and artisans plying their wares. Twice-daily, a ceremonial flag raising and lowering (at 0600 and 1800) are staged with clock-setting punctuality.

On the north side of the Zócalo is the Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral). Built in 1573, consecrated in 1667, and completed in 1813 in a baroque style known as churrigueresque, it is the largest and oldest cathedral in Latin America.

Next to the cathedral, the ruins of the Templo Mayor (Main Temple) gather crowds of onlookers on a daily basis with a museum that displays various artefacts found in the main pyramid of Aztec Tenochtitlán. Rediscovered in 1978 while telephone cables were being laid in the area, the temple was first constructed by the Aztecs in 1375. A new temple was built every 52 years - one on top of the other. Seven have been identified in the Zócalo.

Housing the Federal Treasury, the National Archives and, until recent years, the offices of the President of Mexico, the Palacio Nacional (Presidential Palace) occupies the whole eastern side of the Zócalo. Colourful murals by Diego Rivera adorn a lavish interior with the México a Través de los Siglos (Mexico Through the Centuries) a glorious highlight, depicting every major event and personality of Mexican history, from Cortés' conquest of the Aztecs to the Mexican Revolution.

A few blocks west of Zócalo, the early 20th-century Museo Nacional de Arte (National Art Museum) is a fine Italian Renaissance style palace. It houses an exhaustive collection of Mexican art from every school and style.

Templo Mayor
Plaza de la Constitución
Tel: (55) 5542 0606 or 4784.
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 0900-1700.
Admission charge, free on Sun.

Palacio Nacional
Plaza de la Constitución
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 1000-1700.
Free admission; identification required for entry.

Museo de Arte Moderno
Tacuba 8
Tel: (55) 5510 2999.
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1030-1730.
Free admission.

Alameda Central
Originally an Aztec marketplace, the Alameda Central has a dark past as the former site of executions during the Spanish Inquisition. Today, this pleasant green space is Mexico City's largest central park and a popular gathering point for office workers, food vendors, shoppers and hawkers plying their wares to passersby. Crowds swell each Sunday when families descend in droves for picnics and open-air concerts. Nearby, a huge mural painted in 1947 depicts the park in summer at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera, where the artist's Sueño de una Tarde Dominical  en la Alameda (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park) takes pride of place.

At the eastern end of the Alameda, the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is housed in a sumptuous, white-marble concert hall of considerable grandeur. Containing a museum and theatre within its art deco interior, the building was built to mark the 1910 centennial celebration of Mexican independence. A fine collection of old and contemporary paintings, sculptures and handicrafts is housed on the second and third floors including powerful works by the great Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo. Operas and orchestral concerts are frequently performed in the theatre where a glass curtain boasts a Tiffany design.

Opposite the Palacio is the Torre Latinoamericana (Latin American Tower), a landmark skyscraper built in the 1950s. After surviving an earthquake in 1957, it was awarded the American Association of Construction and Engineering Prize and inaugurated as a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. For resplendent views head to the 43rd-floor viewing platform at 2422m (7950ft) above sea level - on a clear day it affords unbeatable panoramas across the city, the Valley of Mexico and the distant volcanoes beyond.

Museo Mural Diego Rivera
Plaza Solidaridad, corner of Balderas and Colón
Tel: (55) 5512 0754.
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission charge, free on Sun.

Palacio de Bellas Artes
Avenida Juárez, corner of Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas
Tel: (55) 5512 2593.
Website: www.bellasartes.gob.mx
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800 (museum).
Admission charge, free on Sun.

Torre Latinoamericana
Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas, corner of Avenida Madero
Tel: (55) 5752 2887.
Opening hours: Daily 0900-2200.
Admission charge.

Paseo de la Reforma
Dubbed the Champs Elysées because of its Parisian-style architectural influences, the Paseo de la Reforma is Mexico City's main boulevard and most prestigious address. Running from Alameda to Chapultepec Park (see below), it is lined with shops, offices, hotels, restaurants and some modern skyscrapers that are home to multinational corporations, financial institutions and foreign embassies. Monuments, fountains and statues of Mexican heroes also hem the route, built as a direct path for the Emperor Maximilian between the Centro Histórico and his palace in Chapultepec Park. Particularly worthy of note is  El Monumento a los Heroes de la Independencia (Monument to Independence), or Angelito as it is affectionately known, a gilded statue of a winged Victory set atop a 46m-high (150ft) column. In 1956, the statue toppled to the ground in an earthquake, but was completely restored, much to the relief of the Mexican people. Displayed inside the monument is the skull of Hidalgo, the executed leader of a group of rebels who rose against the Spanish in October 1810 (open daily, 0900-1700, no charge).

To the south of the Paseo, bounded by Reforma, Sevilla, Avenida Chapultepec and Avenida Insurgentes Sur, is La Zona Rosa (Pink Zone), a busy shopping and entertainment district with many stores, restaurants and nightclubs.

Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park)
Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City's largest park, is encircled by a huge centuries-old forest and contains lakes, the presidential residences, several of the city's finest museums, an amusement park and a zoo. Legend has it the wood served as a refuge for Toltec and Aztec kings during times of trouble. Today the park attracts thousands of visitors especially on Sundays when families come to relax and picnic. Attractions are split into a trio of distinct areas with the primera sección (first section), on Paseo de la Reforma; the segunda sección (second section) occupied by La Feria (Amusement Park), and the tercera sección (third section) by Atlantis, a marine park with dolphin and seal shows and an aquarium.  

On Chapultepec Hill (meaning ‘Hill of Grasshoppers' in the Aztec language Nahuatl), the Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle) was built in 1785 for the Spanish viceroys and used as a residence for Mexico's presidents until 1940. As the home of the Museo Nacional de Historia (National History Museum) it contains hundreds of paintings, murals, ceramics, furniture and carriages depicting Mexican history from the Aztec era to the modern day. Rooms once used by Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlotta have been beautifully preserved with the castle's balconies affording fine views over the Valley of Mexico. A road-train climbs the hill from inside the entrance to the park.

Permanent exhibitions of Mexican contemporary art displayed at the Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) featuring Rivera, Siqueiros, O'Gorman, Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo and Dr Atl - to name but a few. Other highlights include temporary exhibits of international artists together with a delightful sculpture garden in the grounds. The city's Parque Zoológico de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Zoological Park) was the birthplace of the first panda born in captivity while the modern Museo Rufino Tamayo contains permanent exhibits of work by contemporary Mexican and international painters, donated by Tamayo and his wife.

Chapultepec Park
Tel: (55) 5553 6224.
Opening hours: Daily 0500-1700, closed Monday.
Free admission.

Chapultepec Castle and the Museo Nacional de Historia
Tel: (55) 5553 6224.
Opening times: Tues-Sun 0900-1700.
Admission charge.

La Feria
Tel: (55) 5230 2121.
Website: www.feriachapultepec.com.mx
Opening hours: Tues-Fri 1000-1900, Sat-Sun 1000-2000.
Admission charge.

Atlantis
Tel: (55) 5271 8618.
Website: www.parqueatlantis.com.mx
Opening hours: Sat-Sun and public holidays only, 1000-1730.
Admission charge.

Museo de Arte Moderno
Tel: (55) 5553 6233.
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1730.
Admission: Charge.

Parque Zoológico de Chapultepec
Tel: (55) 5553 6229 or 6263.
Website: www.chapultepec.df.gob.mx
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 0900-1600.
Admission: Free.

Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo
Tel: (55) 5286 6519 or 6529.
Website: www.museotamayo.org
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission: Charge but free on Sun.

Museo Nacional de Antropología
(National Anthropology Museum)
Arguably Mexico's City's finest museum, the Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Anthropology Museum) is also one of the best of its kind in the world. Huge collections span vast themes in a giant building centred on an expansive patio. Though housed in an extension of Chapultepec Park, it can take days to fully explore. Each major culture that played a role in the evolution of a Mesoamerican civilisation is represented. Some of the most fascinating exhibits are the famous Aztec ‘sun' (or ‘calendar') stones, the giant stone Olmec heads from Tabasco and a replica of a Mayan tomb from Palenque. On the upper level, the rooms are dedicated to how modern Mexico's indigenous people live. Daily performances staged outside of the museum's main entrance are publicised by voladores (fliers) - most re-enact ancient ceremonies in colourful, traditional costumes and involve daring acrobatics using suspended ‘flying'.

Paseo de la Reforma (north of Chapultepec Park)
Tel: (55) 5553 6381.
Website: www.mna.inah.gob.mx
Opening hours: Tues-Sat 0900-1900, Sun 0900-1800.
Admission charge, free on Sun.

Coyoacán
Now absorbed by Mexico City, the suburb of Coyoacán was once a city in its own right. Today, it forms the oldest part of the capital as the place from which Cortés launched his attack on Tenochtitlán. Tranquil tree-lined avenues are trimmed with handsome colonial-era buildings and strings of craft stalls. Jugglers, street musicians and mime artists centre on the central squares of Plaza Hidalgo and Jardín del Centenario at weekends and lend a bohemian feel.

Artist Frida Kahlo was born in Coyacán in 1907 and the Museo Casa de Frida Kahlo occupies her family home. Kahlo and her husband, the revolutionary muralist Diego Rivera, lived here from 1929 and formed part of Mexico City's glamorous, leftist, 1930s intellectual set. Today the house is full of mementoes from this era with two rooms preserved as lived in and the rest crammed with paintings by both artists. A small collection of folk art - a passion of Kahlo's - includes a number of regional costumes worn by the artist who lived in the property until her death.

Dark, sombre and stark, the Museo Casa de León Trotsky (Leon Trotsky Museum) is housed in the building where the Russian revolutionary spent the last four years of his life. Very little has changed in the house since 1940, when Trotsky was murdered in his study with an ice pick by an assassin sent by the KGB. The living room wall remains pockmarked with bullet holes - a reminder of a previous failed assassination attempt. Trotsky's ashes are interred in a tomb in the garden.  

Museo Casa de Frida Kahlo
Londres 247 (corner of Allende), Coyoacán
Tel: (55) 5554 5999.
Website: www.museofridakahlo.org
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission charge, free on Sun.

Museo Casa de León Trotsky
Avenida Río Churubusco 410, between Gómez Farías and Morelos
Tel: (55) 5658 8732.
Website: http://museocasadeleontrotsky.blogspot.com
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1700.
Admission charge, free on Sun.

San Angel
This elegant, colonial neighbourhood is about 9km (6 miles) south of Paseo de la Reforma and is best known for its weekly arts and crafts market and affluent residents. Key attractions include the Bazar Sábado (Saturday Bazaar), in Plaza San Jacinto, together with the avant-garde Museo Estudio Diego Rivera (Diego Rivera's Studio Museum), where Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo worked in the 1930s. Fine art can be found in abundance at El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Carrillo Gil (Carillo Gil Contemporary Art Museum) with works by Mexican and international artists.

Museo Estudio Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera 2 (corner of Altavista)
Tel: (55) 5550 1518.
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission charge, free on Sun.

El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Carrillo Gil
Avenida Revolución 1608
Tel: (55) 5550 3983.
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission charge, free on Sun.