Mexico City (or México D.F. in Spanish) is the capital of Mexico and happens to be the biggest city in the world. Located in the center of the country and surrounded by mountains, the city presently has a population of over sixteen million people. With a total population of eighty-eight million people, Mexico itself is the number one, Spanish-speaking country in the world.

Mexico is bordered by the United States in the north, Belize and Guatemala in the south, the Gulf of Mexico in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west. It is a beautiful country with wonderful beaches and majestic volcanoes, such as the Popocatepetl, and is also rich in traditions that stem from the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Those cultures were in turn shaped by the customs that were brought to Mexico later on by the Spanish conquistadors. That is why Mexicans are known as mestizos: people of mixed racial ancestry, and in this case, it is a mix between the indigenous peoples and Europeans. So it is not surprising that in addition to Spanish, sixty-two native languages are spoken in Mexico as well.

Before Cortés conquered Mexico for Spain, Mexico City was called Tenochtitlan and was inhabited by the Aztecs. Exploring the surrounding area, Cortés then came upon the ruins of a magnificent city called Teotihuacan, located forty kilometers northeast of Mexico City. Teotihuacan means “the place of the gods” and the city was inhabited by humans until the 8th century, but to this day, nobody knows what happened to the people who lived there or why they left! If you visit the ruins now you will see two pyramids similar to those found in Egypt that are dedicated to the sun and the moon. Do you have pyramids where you live?