Mexico

Home of the Aztecs, pyramids and cacao

Mexico is the land of the Maya and Aztecs — it has more pyramids than Egypt! Chocolate, maize, tomatoes, chilli peppers and avocados all spread to the world from Mexico. Mexico City was built on the site of the ancient Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, right on a lake. On the 'Day of the Dead' Mexicans remember their ancestors with flowers and sweets. Monarch butterflies fly to Mexico by the millions to spend the winter.

Capital: Mexico City. Language: Spanish + 68 indigenous languages.

The United Mexican States cover 1.96 million km² with 130 million people (the largest Spanish-speaking country) in 32 states. Nature: the Sierra Madre, the Popocatépetl volcano (5,426 m), the Yucatán Peninsula (cenotes — Maya 'sacred wells'), the Chicxulub crater (the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs), the Sonoran Desert, the Gulf of California. History: the Olmecs (1500 BC), Teotihuacan (the Pyramid of the Sun, 65 m), the Maya (Chichen Itza, the calendar, zero), the Aztecs (Tenochtitlan — one of the world's largest cities in 1519), the Spanish conquest (Cortés, 1521), independence in 1810, the 1910 revolution. The Columbian exchange: maize, cacao, tomato, vanilla, chilli, avocado and turkey came from Mexico. Economy: 12th in the world, cars (4th largest exporter), silver (1st), oil, tourism (Cancún). 35 UNESCO sites (the most in the Americas). The Day of the Dead (UNESCO), mariachi, Frida Kahlo.

Fun facts

• Mexico has more pyramids than Egypt.
• Chocolate, tomatoes and avocados spread to the world from Mexico.
• The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.