Parque Tezozómoc

Why this park is unusual. It is a landscape argument. Parque Tezozómoc was designed by the Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan in 1982, built as part of the works accompanying metro Line 6, and its 17 hectares are organised around a large central lake that recreates the original outline of Lake Texcoco —the lake the Mexica built Tenochtitlan in, and which the city spent four centuries draining. Artificial hills stand in for the mountains that ringed the valley, so you walk around a working model of the geography underneath the modern city.

What you find there. Paths and running circuits, bike lanes, planted slopes, and water with real bird life: several kinds of duck, the white heron and the northern shoveler among them. It is used as a neighbourhood park —families, runners, children with hours to burn— and is quiet on weekday mornings.

Practical notes. Open Tuesday to Sunday 06:00–18:00 and closed on Monday; entry is free. Avenida Manuel Salazar in Prados del Rosario, Azcapotzalco. Metro El Rosario, the terminal of Lines 6 and 7, is the nearest station, with a short local bus or taxi for the last stretch. Combine it with the statue of Tezozómoc and the colonial parish church in the old centre of Azcapotzalco.