Mexico City rewards visitors who treat it as a genuinely major world capital rather than a stopover — there's more depth here than most first-time visitors expect. Here are ten things worth your time. The Zócalo and Templo Mayor together offer one of the city's most striking visuals: excavated Aztec ruins sitting directly beneath the modern historic centre's main square. The Frida Kahlo Museum, in her former home in Coyoacán, is the city's most visited cultural site for good reason — book ahead, as timed entry is common. Teotihuacan, about an hour outside the city, is one of the largest ancient cities in the pre-Columbian Americas — climb the Pyramid of the Sun for views over the entire complex. Wandering Roma and Condesa without a fixed plan is itself worth treating as an activity — tree-lined streets, art deco architecture, and a café scene that rivals any design capital. The Palacio de Bellas Artes, both for its architecture and its rotating art exhibitions, is worth a stop even for visitors with only a passing interest in fine art. Coyoacán's market and plazas, beyond the Frida Kahlo Museum itself, give a genuine sense of a former village character that survives within the larger city. Chapultepec Park and its castle offer green space and panoramic city views, a useful contrast to the historic centre's denser streets. The National Museum of Anthropology, inside Chapultepec Park, holds one of the most significant collections of pre-Columbian artifacts anywhere in the world. A lucha libre match, Mexico's theatrical wrestling tradition, is a genuinely fun and distinctly local evening activity that rarely makes first-timer lists. Finally, a food-focused walking tour through any of the historic centre, Roma, or Condesa gives structured context to a food scene that's otherwise easy to experience randomly but harder to understand. The altitude (2,240 metres) can cause mild fatigue in the first day or two — pace your arrival day lightly and stay well hydrated throughout the trip.