Mexico City is the national capital, built in the high Valley of Mexico on and around the former Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Its historic center contains monumental civic, religious, and residential buildings.

The English traveler Charles Joseph Latrobe called its center La Ciudad de los Palacios in 1832, impressed by its stately buildings. The phrase is often misattributed to Alexander von Humboldt, who admired the city but did not coin this exact nickname.