3154 MEXICO (Guanajuato) - San Miguel de Allende - part of Protective town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco (UNESCO WHS)

The city of San Miguel de Allende sits at a high elevation (1910m) on the Central Mexican Plateau, which is a large arid-to-semi-arid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Mexico. A series of low mountains, the Sierra Central, surround San Miguel and are part of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The entire city is located within the national Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Before the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century, San Miguel was an indigenous Chichimeca village called Izcuinapan.

3148 MEXICO (Yucatán) - The Ribbon Dance in Chichen Itza

3148 The Ribbon Dance in Chichen Itza,
during the celebration of the March equinox

The Ribbon Dance (El Baile de las Cintas) is portrayed in every website, guidebook, or history book about Yucatán; the image of men and women in colorful dress, dancing in a circle around a pole, each participant holding on to a brightly colored ribbon, is iconic. The dance has its roots in Bavaria, where in the 14th century was named Maiphahl (maypole). Danced also in England and the Low Countries, it reached Spain during the reign of Charles V, as the Danza del Cordón (Rope Dance).

1491, 2581 MEXICO - Maya people

2581 Maya peoples

Posted on15.03.2015, 28.05.2016
The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the native peoples in southern Mexico and northern Central America that share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage. In other words, the term embraces many distinct ethnic groups that each have their own particular traditions, cultures, and historical identity. The pre-Columbian Maya population was approximately eight million, and despite the centuries of massacres, slavery and diseases, in nowadays there are an estimated seven million living in this area.

1491 A Mayan little girl

The largest populations of contemporary Maya inhabit Guatemala, Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador, as well as large segments of population within the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas. One of the largest group of modern Maya can be found in Mexico's Yucatán state and the neighboring states of Campeche and Quintana Roo. They commonly identify themselves simply as "Maya" with no further ethnic subdivision, and speak the language which anthropologists term "Yucatec Maya".

2559 MEXICO (Chiapas) - A Tzeltal woman to the market in Yochib

Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, located at the border with Guatemala. Over its history, there have been three main indigenous groups: the Mixes-Zoques, the Mayas and the Chiapa. Today, there are an estimated fifty-six linguistic groups. As of the 2005 Census, there were 957,255 people who spoke an indigenous language out of a total population of about 3.5 million. Of this one million, one third don't speak Spanish.

2395 MEXICO - The map of the country

Bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Belize, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico is the world's 13th largest country by total area, and the 11th most populous. It is a federation comprising 32 states, including Mexico City, its capital and largest city, which is also a state. Due to its rich culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas and sixth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
 

2260 MEXICO (Veracruz) - Casa de Cortés in La Antigua

 

Located just 20km north of Veracruz, the small town La Antigua reveals little of its past identity with its languid grid of sleepy, cobbled streets and moss-covered ruins. Regarded (wrongly) as the first Spanish town in Mexico, it was actually the second incarnation of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (which means "the rich village of the true cross). The first location of the settlement was on the sand dunes to which the city now stands, where Hernán Cortés and his band arrived in 1519. But this was never more than a camp, which existed only a few weeks.

2164 MEXICO (Mexico City) - Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNESCO WHS)

2164 Central University City Campus of the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México - Estadio Olímpico
Universitario

The ensemble of buildings, sports facilities and open spaces of the Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), was built in Coyoacán borough in the southern part of Mexico City from 1949 to 1952 by more than 60 architects, engineers and artists who were involved in the project, the main architects being Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral. At the time of its completion it was the largest single construction project in Mexico since the Aztecs.

2128 MEXICO (Guanajuato) - The Temple of Saint Augustine in Salamanca

On January 1, 1603,  the Viceroy Gaspar de Zuniga and Acevedo, fifth Earl of Monterrey, originally from  Salamanca (Spain), founded Villa de Salamanca, now known as Salamanca. In the center of the city is the Temple of Saint Augustine, a baroque Catholic church built between 1642 and 1706. The most remarcable is the nave, which has four spacious sections, transept and presbytery, including eleven different altarpieces among which are those dedicated to Saint Ana and Saint John. You can find many information about the church here (in spanish). 

1908, 1961 MEXICO (Oaxaca) - At the market in Oaxaca

1908 At the market in Oaxaca - Baskets seller eating watermelon

Posted on 20.09.2015, 15.10.2015
Located on the foothills of the Sierra Madre, Oaxaca relies heavily on tourism, not least for the native Zapotec and Mixtec cultures. The city is home to several large markets, the oldest being the Mercado (Market) Benito Juárez, built in 1893 and named after a former president. The Mercado 20 de Noviembre, known as the Mercado de la Comida (food), is recommended for regional dishes such as moles, tasajo, tlayudas, pan de yema, chapulines, quesillo, queso fresco, as well as very large cups of hot chocolate, often spiced with cinnamon and almonds.

1961 At the market in Oaxaca - Grilled meat corridor

Also called the handicrafts market, the Mercado de Artesañas it’s open daily and offers lots of household items, leather goods, native textiles, handicrafts, and ceramics. La Merced Market is also open daily and is a good place to find cheap mescal and tequila, as well as many other food items. On Saturday’s, Oaxaca City market, also known as Abastos Market becomes alive with crafts from the early morning to afternoon. The market is open everyday of the week, but the craft section is only around on Saturdays.

1878 MEXICO - The Tlacolula Market

Located at about 30 km from the center of the city of Oaxaca, Tlacolula de Matamoros is the main commercial center for the Tlacolula Valley area, and best known for its weekly open air market (or tianguis) held on Sundays. This market is one of the oldest, largest and busiest in Oaxaca, mostly selling foodstuffs and other necessities for the many rural people which come into town on this day to buy, sell and socialize. The name most likely comes from the Nahuatl phrase Tlacolullan, which means "place of abundance."

0425, 1817 MEXICO (Yucatán) - Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza (UNESCO WHS)

0425 Chichén Itzá - Aerial view

Posted on 21.12.2012, 14.08.2015
What postcard would be more apropriate for today, December 21, 2012 (when, according to the mayan calendar, the fourth world reached the end of its 13th b'ak'tun, and the Great Cycle of the Long Count reached completion), than the one with Chichén Itzá? "Chichen Itzá was at one time not only the greatest and most powerful city in Yucatan, but it was a sacred city as well, a center of pilgrimage to which people flocked from every part of the peninsula and from foreign countries also to make offerings of gold, incense, copper, precious stones and human victims", is written in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. 

1817 Chichén Itzá - The Castle seen from the Temple of  the Warriors

"The city owed its reputation for sanctity to its cenote, 1 or natural well, which was believed to be inhabited by the gods and the spirits of the illustrious dead. It is a great cup-shaped depression in the earth with perpendicular walls, about seventy feet down to the surface of the water and about one hundred and seventy feet across. The sacred well served no utilitarian purpose; the city obtained its water from another more convenient cenote and several artificial wells."

1672 MEXICO (Oaxaca) - Tehuanas

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec represents the shortest distance between the the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, and prior to the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major shipping route known simply as the Tehuantepec Route. The name is taken from the town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec; this was derived from the Nahuatl term tecuani-tepec ("jaguar hill"). The population of the region is composed almost wholly of indigenous Zapotec peoples. The women are the traders in Tehuantepec and do little menial work. Known as "Tehuanas", these women are known throughout Mexico for their colorful dresses, assertive personalities, and relatively equal relations with men, leading some to characterize them as "matriarchal". The underskirt is lace while the skirt and bodice are embroidered black velvet. Coins form part of their sumptuous gold jewelry.  

1619 MEXICO (Quintana Roo) - Aerial view of Cancún

Located on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, Cancún is an important renowned tourist destination, just north of Mexico's Caribbean coast resort band known as the Riviera Maya. The island of Cancún was originally known to its Maya inhabitants as Nizuc, and the name Cancún first appears on 18th century maps. When development was started in 1970, it had only three residents, caretakers of the coconut plantation of Don José de Jesús Lima Gutiérrez, who lived on Isla Mujeres, and there were only 117 people living in nearby Puerto Juarez, a fishing village and military base.

1596 MEXICO (Veracruz) - Ritual ceremony of the Voladores (UNESCO ICH)

Founded in the 13th century by the Totonacs, in the Sierra Papanteca range and on the Gulf of Mexico, Papantla is the heart of the Totonacapan region and still has strong communities of Totonacs who maintain the culture and language. This is the home of vanilla, which is native to this region, the El Tajín archeological site, and the Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers). Named also Palo Volador (Pole Flying), the Danza de los Voladores is an ancient Mesoamerican ceremony / ritual still performed today, albeit in modified form, in isolated pockets in Mexico. It is believed to have originated with the Nahua, Huastec and Otomi peoples in central Mexico, and then spread throughout most of Mesoamerica.

1063, 1580 MEXICO (Oaxaca) - Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán (UNESCO WHS)

1063 Pre-Columbian archaeological site of Monte Albán (1)

Posted on 22.04.2014, 14.05.2015
This World Heritage property, located in the central valleys of Oaxaca, in the depression formed between the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre del Sur, is composed of two distinct cultural sites: the historic centre of Oaxaca de Juarez (a good example of Spanish colonial town planning) and the pre-Columbian archaeological site of Monte Albán, consisting of terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and artificial mounds carved out of the mountain, the symbols of a sacred topography. Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years by a succession of peoples (Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs), the site is known for its unique dimensions which exhibit the basic chronology and artistic style of the region and for the remains of magnificent temples, ball court, tombs and bas-reliefs with hieroglyphic inscriptions.

1580 Pre-Columbian archaeological site of Monte Albán (2)

The grand Zapotec capital flourished for thirteen centuries, from the year 500 B.C to 850 A.D. when, for reasons that have not been established, its eventual abandonment began. The main part of the ceremonial centre forms a 300m esplanade running north-south with a platform at either end, constructed during the Monte Albán II and the Monte Albán III phases. Phase II corresponds to the urbanization of the site, the construction of terraces on the sides of the hills, and the development of a system of dams and conduits. The final phases of Monte Albán IV and V were marked by the transformation of the sacred city into a fortified town. Excellent planning is evidenced in the position of the line buildings erected north to south, harmonized with both empty spaces and volumes.

1557 MEXICO (Zacatecas) - Historic Centre of Zacatecas (UNESCO WHS)

1557 The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption
of Zacatecas

Located in the north-central Mexico, between the Bufa and Grillo hills, Zacatecas was founded in 1546 after the discovery of a rich silver lode, reaching the height of its prosperity in the 16th and 17th centuries, when became one of the most important cities in New Spain. Built at the foot of the Cerro de la Bufa, in which was one of the greatest silver mines in the world, it followed the old Indian neighborhoods with narrow streets and alleys squeezed into a large ravine or cañada. The city is called "con rostro de cantera rosa y corazón de plata" (face of pink stone and heart of silver) because of the pink stone that many of its iconic buildings are made of and the silver that has spurred its development and history.

1384 MEXICO (Michoacán) - Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead (UNESCO ICH)

1384 Dance of The Old Men in Janitzio

The town of Janitzio (which means "where it rains") is located atop the hill of the Isla de Janitzio, the main island of Lake Pátzcuaro (on the background of the postcard), whereof the natives believe that is the place where the barrier between life and death is the thinnest. On the island's highest point can be seen a 40m statue of José María Morelos, a great hero of Mexico's independence. The Lake Pátzcuaro basin is home to the Purépecha (Tarascan) people, who in pre-colonial times occupied most of the state of Michoacán, but also some of the lower valleys of Guanajuato and Jalisco. The Tarascan state was never conquered by the Aztec Empire, despite several attempts to do so, probably due to the Purépecha knowledge of metal working, which was superior to that of the Aztecs.

0658, 1328 MEXICO (Veracruz) - El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 25.05.2013 and completed on 08.11.2014
In 1785, an official stumbled upon by chance the Pyramid of the Niches, in the highlands of the municipality of Papantla, in the low mountains that lead from the Sierra Madre Oriental to the Gulf coast near the Tecolutla River. It is unclear who built the city, but the site was known to the local Totonac, whose ancestors may also have built it, as El Tajín, which was said to mean "of thunder or lightning bolt". Related to this is their belief that twelve old thunderstorm deities, known as Tajín, still inhabit the ruins. Anyway, between 600 and 1200 C.E. it was a prosperous city, one of the largest and most important of the Classic era of Mesoamerica, that controlled much of what is now modern Veracruz state, advantaged  by its strategic position along the old trade routes.

Considered to be crucial to the understanding of artistic and socio-economic development in the period between the Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan empires, and its architecture, characterized by elaborate carved reliefs on the columns and frieze, being unique in Mesoamerica, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992, under the name El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City. The settlement is divided into three areas, each constructed around a number of open spaces (plazas). The focus of the site is Pyramid of the Niches, which rises at 20m in 6 steps to a temple at the top, and has a wide staircase rising up its eastern side. Each storey has rows of square niches with overhanging cornices, 365 in total, one for each day of the solar year. The staircase is bordered by a step-and-fret motif; probably representing lightning.

1250 MEXICO (Querétaro) - Historic Monuments Zone of Querétaro (UNESCO WHS)

Santiago de Querétaro, the capital and largest city of the state of Querétaro, located in central Mexico, at 213km northwest of Mexico City, was founded on 25 July 1531, when during a battle between the Spanish and the natives of the area, an eclipse occurred during which Saint James on a white horse carrying a pink cross supposedly appeared, causing the natives of the areas to surrender. The old colonial town of Querétaro is unusual in having retained the geometric street plan of the Spanish conquerors side by side with the twisting alleys of the Indian quarters. The Otomi, the Tarasco, the Chichimeca and the Spanish lived together peacefully in the town, which is notable for the many ornate civil and religious Baroque monuments from its golden age in the 17th and 18th centuries.

0858 MEXICO (Michoacán) - Historic Centre of Morelia (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the Guayangareo Valley, in a area inhabited in pre-Hispanic era by Purépecha and Matlatzinca, Morelia was founded in 1541 by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, under the name Valladolid. In 1580 it became the capital of the colonial province, and after the Mexican War of Independence, the city was renamed Morelia, in honor of José María Morelos. The city was the birthplace of several important personalities of independent Mexico and has played a major role in the country's history. Because it is an outstanding example of urban planning, which associates the ideas of the Spanish Renaissance with the Mesoamerican experience, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. More than 200 historical buildings, all in the region's characteristic pink stone, reflect the town's architectural history, revealing a masterly and eclectic blend of the medieval spirit with Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical elements.