Mexico City hotels collection

Mexico City is sinking, and the Angel of Independence keeps count: steps have had to be added to the base of its column as the ground subsided around it. The city stands on the clay of a drained lake. In the Centro, the colonial palaces are of tezontle, a porous red volcanic stone, framed in grey chiluca at doors and windows; more than one façade leans. On the black lava of Xitle, Luis Barragán laid out the gardens of El Pedregal. At Xochimilco, the last canals of the lake, chinampas are still farmed, plots of mud won from the water and held by the roots of the ahuejote willows planted along their edges.