Fun Facts About Mexico

Fun Facts About Mexico: all 30, explained

1. Mexico City is sinking.

   Mexico City was built on the bed of Lake Texcoco. Pumping water from underground has made the soft clay compact, and some parts of the city sink by tens of centimetres a year.

   Source: Mexico City (Wikipedia) · Fact card

2. The Aztecs used cacao beans as money.

   Chocolate comes from cacao, first used in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago. The Aztecs valued the beans so highly that they used them as currency and drank cacao as a bitter, spiced drink.

   Source: Cocoa bean (Wikipedia) · Fact card

3. Mexico recognizes 68 national languages.

   Besides Spanish, Mexican law recognizes 63 Indigenous languages, such as Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya and Mixtec, as national languages. Words like chocolate, tomato and avocado come from Nahuatl.

   Source: Languages of Mexico (Wikipedia) · Fact card

4. At Chichén Itzá, a shadow serpent appears on the pyramid at the equinoxes.

   Around the spring and autumn equinoxes, afternoon sunlight on the stepped pyramid El Castillo casts triangular shadows that look like a snake sliding down the staircase toward a carved serpent head at the bottom.

   Source: El Castillo, Chichen Itza (Wikipedia) · Fact card

5. Avocado, chocolate and tomato are all words from the Aztec language.

   They come from the Nahuatl words ahuacatl, chocolatl (or a related form) and tomatl, which reached English through Spanish.

   Source: Nahuatl (Wikipedia) · Fact card

6. Mexico has 31 states plus Mexico City.

   Mexico City became a federal entity on a level with the states in 2016.

   Source: States of Mexico (Wikipedia) · Fact card

7. Mexico has the most Spanish speakers of any country.

   More than 120 million people in Mexico speak Spanish.

   Source: Mexican Spanish (Wikipedia) · Fact card

8. Mexico City sits about 2,240 meters above sea level.

   It is one of the highest major cities in North America.

   Source: Mexico City (Wikipedia) · Fact card

9. Mexico City was built on a lake.

   The Aztec capital Tenochtitlan stood on an island in Lake Texcoco; much of the lake was later drained.

   Source: Tenochtitlan (Wikipedia) · Fact card

10. Day of the Dead is celebrated on 1 and 2 November.

    Families build altars called ofrendas to remember loved ones. UNESCO lists it as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

    Source: Day of the Dead (Wikipedia) · Fact card

11. Chocolate was first made in Mesoamerica.

    The Olmec, Maya and Aztecs drank cacao, often unsweetened and spiced with chili.

    Source: History of chocolate (Wikipedia) · Fact card

12. Corn was domesticated in Mexico.

    Farmers bred it from a wild grass called teosinte about 9,000 years ago.

    Source: Maize (Wikipedia) · Fact card

13. Chili peppers were domesticated in Mexico.

    People have grown them there for at least 6,000 years.

    Source: Chili pepper (Wikipedia) · Fact card

14. A volcano appeared in a Mexican farmer’s cornfield in 1943.

    Parícutin grew to more than 300 meters within a year, and scientists watched a volcano being born.

    Source: Parícutin (Wikipedia) · Fact card

15. The asteroid that ended the age of dinosaurs hit Mexico.

    The Chicxulub crater, about 180 kilometers wide, lies buried under the Yucatán Peninsula.

    Source: Chicxulub crater (Wikipedia) · Fact card

16. The Yucatán Peninsula has thousands of cenotes.

    These natural sinkholes are filled with fresh water and were sacred to the Maya.

    Source: Cenote (Wikipedia) · Fact card

17. Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun is one of the largest pyramids in the world.

    The ancient city near Mexico City was once one of the largest in the Americas.

    Source: Teotihuacan (Wikipedia) · Fact card

18. Millions of monarch butterflies spend the winter in Mexico.

    They fly up to about 4,000 kilometers from Canada and the US to fir forests in central Mexico.

    Source: Monarch butterfly (Wikipedia) · Fact card

19. Wild axolotls live only in the Xochimilco area of Mexico City.

    Their numbers have fallen sharply because of pollution and habitat loss.

    Source: Axolotl (Wikipedia) · Fact card

20. Mexico has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country in the Americas.

    They include ancient cities, colonial towns and natural reserves.

    Source: List of World Heritage Sites in Mexico (Wikipedia) · Fact card

21. Mexico celebrates independence on 16 September, not 5 May.

    Cinco de Mayo marks a battle against the French at Puebla in 1862.

    Source: Cinco de Mayo (Wikipedia) · Fact card

22. A Mexican inventor created an early color television system.

    Guillermo González Camarena patented a color TV system in 1940.

    Source: Guillermo González Camarena (Wikipedia) · Fact card

23. Mariachi music is on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

    It began in western Mexico, especially Jalisco.

    Source: Mariachi (Wikipedia) · Fact card

24. Real tequila can only be made in Mexico.

    It is made from blue agave, mainly in the state of Jalisco, around the town of Tequila.

    Source: Tequila (Wikipedia) · Fact card

25. Mexico is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries.

    It is home to around 10% of the world’s known species.

    Source: Biodiversity of Mexico (Wikipedia) · Fact card

26. The largest pyramid in the world by volume is in Mexico.

    The Great Pyramid of Cholula is now covered by a hill with a church on top.

    Source: Great Pyramid of Cholula (Wikipedia) · Fact card

27. Frida Kahlo’s Blue House is a museum in Mexico City.

    The artist was born and died in the house in Coyoacán.

    Source: Frida Kahlo Museum (Wikipedia) · Fact card

28. Mexico’s Copper Canyon is larger than the Grand Canyon.

    The system of canyons in Chihuahua is deeper in places and covers a larger area.

    Source: Copper Canyon (Wikipedia) · Fact card

29. Mexico’s flag shows an eagle eating a snake on a cactus.

    It comes from the Aztec legend of where to found their capital.

    Source: Flag of Mexico (Wikipedia) · Fact card

30. Vanilla comes from Mexico.

    The vanilla orchid is native to Mexico, where the Totonac people grew it long before it spread around the world.

    Source: Vanilla (Wikipedia) · Fact card