Crossword Dictionary
Mexico City
Mexico City, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexican capital, capital of Mexico - n
the capital and largest city of Mexico is a political and cultural and commercial and industrial center; one of the world's largest cities
Mexico City, Nahuatl México, Spanish Ciudad de México or in full Ciudad de México, D.F., city and capital of Mexico, synonymous with the Federal District (Distrito Federal; D.F.). The term Mexico City can also apply to the capital’s metropolitan area, which includes the Federal District but extends beyond it to the west, north, and east, where the state (estado) of México surrounds it on three sides. In contrast, the southern part of the Federal District sustains a limited population on its mountain slopes.
Spanish conquistadors founded Mexico City in 1521 atop the razed island-capital of Tenochtitlán, the cultural and political centre of the Aztec (Mexica) empire. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban settlements in the Western Hemisphere, and it is ranked as one of the world’s most populous metropolitan areas. One of the few major cities not located along the banks of a river, it lies in an inland basin called the Valley of Mexico, or Mesa Central. The valley is an extension of the southern Mexican Plateau and is also known as Anáhuac (Nahuatl: “Close to the Waterâ€) because the area once contained several large lakes. The name México is derived from Nahuatl, the language of its precolonial inhabitants.