Angel of Independence
A 7-ton gold goddess stands 36 metres above Reforma — and Mexico City has been slowly sinking beneath her since 1910.
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Built for Mexico's independence centennial, this victory column also serves as a mausoleum for the war's key heroes. A 200-step staircase inside climbs to a viewpoint above the capital. The roundabout below is the city's default gathering point for championships and protests in equal measure.
What to look for
- The bronze lion guiding a child at the base — architect Rivas Mercado's symbol of the Mexican people 'strong during war and docile during peace'
- Fourteen steps added to the original nine, concrete evidence of the ongoing ground subsidence that affects the whole city
- Four eagles with extended wings on the Corinthian capital, drawn from the Mexican coat of arms in use at the time
On Paseo de la Reforma on a roundabout in downtown; approach from the downtown-facing side to read the base inscription 'La Nación a los Héroes de la Independencia'.
Angel of Independence is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Mexico City, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Mexico City pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Mexico City
- Mexico City Metropolitan CathedralTwo hundred and forty years of construction, built on top of the Aztec sacred precinct — every generation of New Spain left something inside.
- National Museum of AnthropologyThe stone that defined how the world pictures the Aztec calendar is here — and 3.7 million people came to see it last year.
- Autódromo Hermanos RodríguezA 4.3 km ribbon of asphalt where two brothers gave their names — and their lives — to Mexican motorsport.
- Aztec Sun StoneA 24-tonne disc of olivine basalt that spent centuries buried under Mexico City's main square — then mounted on a cathedral wall — before anyone called it art.
- Palacio de Bellas ArtesStarted in 1904, halted by revolution and a sinking city, finished in 1934 — thirty years of delay show in every detail.
- University Olympic Stadium (Estadio Olímpico Universitario)This is where Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists to the sky in 1968 — one of sport's most charged political moments, in a stadium that held 83,700 people.