Source: WTL photo© on site in Mexico City, 2008.
Image: The Catedral Metropolitana on the left and the Palacio Nacional (national government building) on the right.
Comments: Note that the Spanish conquistadors (especially the "urban developer," Hernán Cortés) laid out the reconstructed Ciudad de México (Mexico City) on a Spanish-style rectangular grid spreading out block by block from the central square (in this city called El Zócalo: see lower center right). Here the cathedral is on the northern side of the square and the main government building is adjacent to it on the square's eastern side. In most other colonial cities these two buildings face each other across the central square.
Additional views of the National Palace: See: => Mexico City #04a; => Mexico City #04b; => Mexico City #04c.
Humanities topic: The s