Bosque de Chapultepec
A hill the Toltecs named "grasshopper," the Aztecs made sacred, and Mexican presidents called home — all layered into one 866-hectare park.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Mexico City offline.
Few city parks compress this much time. Toltec altar remains sit on the same hill where Aztec rulers deposited their dead and drew fresh water for Tenochtitlan. A colonial castle rose over it all, serving as the official presidential residence until 1934. The first and oldest section packs in the castle, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Rufino Tamayo Museum within walking distance.
What to look for
- Toltec altar remains at the hill's summit — the oldest identified layer of human use on the site
- Chapultepec Castle, which served as Mexico's official head-of-state residence until 1934 when Los Pinos replaced it
- The Museum of Anthropology and Rufino Tamayo Museum, both in the first section alongside the castle
Stick to the first section — it is the oldest and most visited, and holds the main attractions; with 24 million visitors a year, arrive early on weekdays.
Bosque de Chapultepec 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.