Museo del Templo Mayor / Urban Archaeology - Small Groups
Description
Let's dive into the remains of a building from the 14th Century which explains how the capital of the Mexica Empire functioned. During this experience we are going to visit the most important building for the mexicas, who ruled the city until it fell in August 1521. Templo Mayor was almost totally destroyed, and its construction materials were repurposed for building the first European like city. However, we are going to see buildings, mural paintings and artifacts which had been buried under the city's historic center for centuries, until they were discovered by the Urban Archaeology Program and the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Tour Options
Itinerary
We will explore the History of the City all the to its roots. We are going to explore the archaeological site where the most important pre hispanic building was. We are going to see mural paintings, monoliths and diverse artifacts.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
Reviews(3)
I enjoyed my tour with Raul a lot. He is very friendly and explains everything very clearly. On top of everything, I had patience with my bad Spanish. Highly recommended. I took the tour in Spanish for my own pleasure, but Raul is clearly comfortable giving the tour in English, I highly recommend him.
Eduardo was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the temple mayor. I highly recommend this tour!
I recently had the opportunity to take the Museo del Templo Mayor / Urban Archaeology tour offered by Raúl. After taking his architecture & history walk in Centro Histórico on a previous visit, which I left very impressed, I was curious to learn more about the city’s history when I visited it again this summer, particularly about its fascinating Aztec / Mexica heritage. I was happy to see that Raúl was offering a tour focusing specifically on this topic and, based on my previous positive experience, decided to give it a try - and it was absolutely worth it! The ruins of Templo Mayor and the adjacent museum are fascinating places to visit even on your own, but Raúl’s tour greatly enhanced this experience: he added important context to the museum exhibits and what's left of the temple pieces, making me understand much better their meaning and religious significance. However - and this is what truly makes his tours one-of-a-kind - this is not just a museum walk with some bonus information. Much rather, Raúl uses the site of Templo Mayor and the museum exhibits to re-construct, with his narration, the life in the former Aztec capital: its culture, its people, its leaders and of course, its dramatic fall. He forges fascinating connections between the pieces and the broader history of the city, making the former capital - for a period of 3 hours - truly come alive again in my mind. This is even more impressive considering that, going into the tour, I only had very little background knowledge! Once again, I left Raúl’s tour having learned incredibly much - and yet, at no point did I ever feel overwhelmed or exhausted by the amount of information (something that tends to happen to me, especially in long museum visits!), thanks to Raúl’s captivating and vivid narrative style. All things considered, I cannot recommend enough Raúl enough as a guide if you want to explore and understand the history of the city (and the country!), no matter if you have some or no previous knowledge at all - with his tours, you will be able to see the city in a new light. If I have the chance to re-visit Mexico City in the future, I will definitely make sure to take more walks with him!
