Source: WTL photograph© taken on site at the Hacienda de Cortés outside Cuernavaca.
Image: The outside of Hernán Cortés's sixteenth-century hacienda.
Comments: Although the building here looks like it is in ruins in the midst of the profuse semi-tropical vegetation of the Cuernavaca Valley (85 km / 53 mi south of Mexico City), nevertheless, the estate has been preserved and now functions as a fine hotel and restaurant. Cortés developed the hacienda as a sugar plantation. Link here for the => Hotel Hacienda de Cortés. The grounds feature gardens, cascades, fountains, the ruins of colonial pillars, and sculptures.