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Chapultepec, which in the náhuatl dialect means
“hill of the grasshopper”, is a park in Mexico City.
It’s the main recreational and cultural centre in
the city and it’s one of the largest, most beautiful
and most visited parks in the world. Chapultepec
Park or Forest as it’s known by the inhabitants of
the City, takes its name from a hill located on its
grounds, which houses on its peak the Castle of
Chapultepec, which has been a witness to Mexican
history since prehispanic times and that is
surrounded by beautiful gardens and hundreds of
ahuehuete trees, one of the most long-lived species
in the world.
The first section belongs to the oldest
area of the park. It has a lake in which people can
rent boats, a zoo (the most important one in
Latinamerica), the Castle of Chapultepec (currently
the National History Museum) and outstanding museums
like the Modern Art Museum, the National
Anthropology Museum, which holds the biggest
precolombian art collection in the world, and the
Tamayo Museum, in which work of the painter Rufino
Tamayo is displayed, apart from numerous temporary
exhibitions of international contemporary art.
The
second section, opened in 1962, houses the
Presidential Residence “Los Pinos”, the Papalote
Children’s Museum and two lakes, the biggest of
which is one of the favourite spots for sport
activities, to visit one of two restaurants or to
simply serenely contemplate the lake waters or feed
the ducks.
The third section, inaugurated in
1974, has extensive green areas, a centre of Marine
Co-existence, and also houses the seat of the
Architect’s School.
Chapultepec, and specially the Castle of the same
name have been extremely outstanding places in
México’s history. Its origins go far back to
precolombian times, when the mexicas, after
consolidating their power in the Valley of México,
established a sanctuary and gardens as a retreat for
emperors. Later on, in times of Mexico’s
independence, said Castle functioned as a Military
School, and was, after convenient modifications,
turned into the official residence of the emperor
Maximiliano de Hasburgo, in times of the Second
Mexican Empire. Finally, the Castle became the
National History Museum and the park was opened,
much to the delight of the inhabitants of Mexico
City, by president Lázaro Cárdenas.
While visiting Chapultepec, it is an unforgettable
experience to contemplate the most wonderful view of
the City from the Castle, to walk through the Door
of the Lions which is the entrance from Reforma, and
to visit the Chapultepec Zoo, one of the most
important in the world.
Places of interest in this area:
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