Aqueduct of Querétaro

The Aqueduct of Querétaro is the emblem of the city, a stately row of seventy-four sandstone arches striding across the valley on the eastern edge of the historic center. Built in the first half of the eighteenth century, it carried fresh spring water into the growing colonial city and remains its most recognizable monument.

The scale is remarkable. The arcade runs for well over a kilometer and rises at its tallest to around twenty-three meters, its pale arches marching in a graceful curve that has become the symbol on the city's seals and souvenirs. Local tradition credits its construction to the Marquis de la Villa del Villar del Águila, said to have funded it partly out of love for a nun in need of clean water.

It formed part of a larger waterworks that supplied fountains and convents throughout Querétaro, an ambitious piece of civil engineering that reflected the city's colonial wealth. The aqueduct's importance to the historic center helped earn the wider zone recognition on the World Heritage list, and its silhouette appears on regional coats of arms and countless local emblems.

Today the arches are floodlit at night and best viewed from the Mirador de los Arcos, a lookout that frames the full sweep against the sky. The surrounding historic center is a compact grid of pedestrian streets, plazas and colonial mansions, easily explored on foot and dotted with cafés and restaurants. Querétaro is an easy few hours from Mexico City by road and makes a rewarding base for the Bajío region. Photographers favor dusk, when the lit arches glow against the darkening hills. The dry, temperate season from November to April brings the most comfortable weather for walking the center and admiring the aqueduct from its viewpoints.