Willy Wasser & Little Horse in Chapultepec Park (Lake and zoo)

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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. It is twice the size of New York's Central Park.  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 pre-Hispanic times and that is surrounded by beautiful gardens and hundreds of ahuehuete trees, one of the longest-living species in the world (Ahuehuete in Nahuatl, the Aztec's language, means "Old man from the water").


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 Latin America), 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 pre-Columbian 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, the Dolores cemetery of Mexico City, the largest cemetery in Mexico (where the The Rotonda of Illustrious Men is located -PHOTOS HERE-), and also houses the seat of the Architect’s School.

Built and inhabited since pre-Columbian times, Chapultepec Park was originally a retreat for Aztec rulers. Then, during the Colonial times, the Chapultepec Castle was built here and became the official residence for Mexican heads of state. Nowadays, the park retains the Chapultepec Castle as a tourist attraction and museum – a glittering attraction alongside the Chapultepec Zoo, nine museums, an amusement park, numerous walking paths and sculptures, and several different lakes and fountains.

Chapultepec Zoo is a surprisingly diverse zoo and one of the nicest of the four zoos that are located in Mexico City. With several giant pandas, a rhinoceros, and several endangered species like the volcano rabbit, jaguars, and the Mexican wolf.

Chapultepec Zoo is part of the Mexican tradition of conserving animal species that dates back to ancient times; like in the times of the Aztecs, in which one of the Mexica emperors, Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, possessed a zoological garden containing exotic species from the most recondite places in Mesoamerica, all of which greatly impressed the Spanish conquerors.

Inspired in this past’s splendor, on July 6th 1923, the eminent Mexican biologist Alfonso L. Herrera placed the first stone of the Chapultepec Zoo, after having profoundly investigated and visited Zoos in other parts of the world so as to be able to design an adequate space for the animals, which he acquired from countries like the United States, France, India, Peru and Brazil. After one year of construction, the Chapultepec Zoo opened its doors in 1924, becoming with time, one of the most important zoological parks in the world with more than 5 million visitors each year.

The Chapultepec Zoo received international recognition since the end of the 20th Century due to its successful breeding programme, specifically of the panda bears, being the first institution outside China to achieve the reproduction of this species. These bears are the main attraction of the zoo and are beloved by the inhabitants of the city. Their fame has achieved such heights that they even were the object of a song that achieved great popularity in the 80’s.











































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