Plaza Inbursa Centro Comercial Cuicuilco

What it was before. This shopping centre occupies the former Loreto y Peña Pobre paper mill, and it kept the original structure: the industrial halls, the roof trusses and several of the old machines are still in place among the shops. It is officially Plaza Inbursa and universally called Plaza Cuicuilco.

What is inside. Cinemas, restaurants and food courts, shops, parking — and KidZania, the miniature city where children take on adult jobs, which is the reason most families come.

What is across the road. The Cuicuilco archaeological zone: a circular stepped pyramid, one of the oldest monumental structures in the valley of Mexico, built before Teotihuacán and buried by the eruption of the Xitle volcano around 400 CE. Entry is free, it is almost never crowded, and the contrast with the mall opposite is the most Mexico City thing imaginable.

Practical notes. Av. San Fernando #649, Peña Pobre, Tlalpan. There is no Metro immediately nearby — Universidad, line 3, is the closest, with a short taxi ride — and the Insurgentes Metrobús runs along the avenue. The archaeological site closes on Mondays; the mall does not.