Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco

Mexico City stands quite literally on top of Tenochtitlan: Spanish builders of the 16th century quarried the drowned Aztec capital to raise a colonial metropolis, and excavated temple ruins now surface beside the continent's largest cathedral. To the south, the canals and chinampa garden islands of Xochimilco preserve the ingenious lake agriculture the Aztecs perfected. UNESCO inscribed the historic centre and Xochimilco together in 1987 as twin records of a layered civilization.