The Icons, Done Right — CDMX, Like a Chilanga

museum gallery

The one museum you cannot skip — block out half a day

See: Aztec Sun Stone

Half a day

The greatest museum in the country, full stop — Sun Stone, Maya rooms, giant Olmec heads under the umbrella fountain
It's enormous — don't try to do all of it
Closed Mondays

Order

Only two hours? Mexica and Maya halls, skip the rest

Book ahead

museum gallery · Del Carmen

Frida's cobalt-blue house, exactly as she left it

See: The studio, untouched

Timed ticket online

Frida's wheelchair still sits at the easel; her corsets and dresses hang where she left them
The kitchen alone is pure Mexican folk colour
It's small and it sells out — this is not a walk-up museum

Timing

Buy the timed ticket online before you fly — never at the door

landmark · Centro

The Aztec temple hiding under downtown

See: Coyolxauhqui stone

The actual heart of Tenochtitlan — a double temple the Spanish buried and paved over, dug back up in the 1970s
Elevated walkways carry you right over the excavation
The museum behind holds the Coyolxauhqui stone

Order

Zócalo first, cathedral second, then go underground — the order matters

landmark · Centro

The marble opera house with the Rivera murals inside

See: Rivera murals upstairs

The marble palace sinks a little further into the old lakebed every year
Upstairs: Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros — including the mural Rockefeller destroyed and Rivera repainted
The outside is the postcard; the inside is the reason

Order

Shoot the whole building from the Sears café balcony across the street