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Cultural 28Natural 6Mixed 2
Mexico has 36 World Heritage Sites (28 cultural, 6 natural, 2 mixed), the 7th most in the world. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name; click a name in the list to show it on the map. Listed by year of inscription.
- Sian Ka'an Sian Ka'an, on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, means 'Origin of the Sky' in Mayan. The biosphere reserve contains tropical forests, mangroves, marshes and a large marine area with part of a barrier reef, and is home to many birds, mammals and sea turtles.
- Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque Palenque, set in the tropical forest of Chiapas in southern Mexico, is a prime example of a Classic-period Maya sanctuary, at its height between AD 500 and 700 when its influence extended across the Usumacinta basin. It is known for the elegance of its buildings and the quality of its stone and stucco reliefs.
- Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco The Historic Centre of Mexico City was built by the Spanish in the 16th century on the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, and includes the remains of five Aztec temples, the cathedral and palaces. Xochimilco, in the south, keeps the canals and chinampa gardens that date back to Aztec times.
- Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan Teotihuacan, meaning 'the place where the gods were created', lies about 50 km north-east of Mexico City. It was built between the 1st and 7th centuries AD and is known for its vast monuments, including the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and for its rigorous urban planning.
- Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán The Historic Centre of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, is paired with the nearby Monte Albán, inhabited for about 1,500 years by Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs, whose terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and mounds were carved out of the mountain. Oaxaca itself is a 16th-century colonial city planned on a grid.
- Historic Centre of Puebla Puebla, about 100 km east of Mexico City at the foot of the Popocatepetl volcano, was founded from scratch in 1531. Its historic centre keeps a 16th–17th-century cathedral and former archbishop's palace, and is known for tile decoration that blends European and local traditions.
- Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent Mines Guanajuato, in central Mexico, was founded by the Spanish in the early 16th century and became the world's leading silver-extraction centre in the 18th century. The town retains its 'subterranean streets', the 600 m deep Boca del Inferno mineshaft and fine Baroque and Neoclassical buildings.
- Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza Chichen Itza, on the Yucatán Peninsula, was one of the greatest Maya centres, and over almost a thousand years of history different peoples left their mark on it. Its stone monuments, including the Pyramid of Kukulcán and the great ball court, reveal the Maya and Toltec vision of the world.
- Historic Centre of Morelia Morelia, in west-central Mexico, was built in the 16th century and is an outstanding example of urban planning that combines Spanish Renaissance ideas with the Mesoamerican experience. Its streets still follow the original layout, and more than 200 historic buildings, many in local pink stone, survive.
- El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City El Tajín, in Veracruz state in eastern Mexico, was at its height from the early 9th to the early 13th century and became the most important centre in north-east Mesoamerica after the fall of Teotihuacan. It is known for its Pyramid of the Niches and its many ball courts, and its influence spread along the Gulf coast.
- Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino The Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaíno lies in the central part of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. The coastal lagoons of Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio are important breeding and wintering sites for the grey whale, and the area also shelters harbour seals, elephant seals and marine turtles.
- Historic Centre of Zacatecas Zacatecas, in north-central Mexico, was founded in 1546 after the discovery of a rich silver lode and prospered in the 16th and 17th centuries. Built on the steep slopes of a narrow valley, it preserves many religious and secular buildings, including a cathedral that is a leading example of Mexican Baroque.
- Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco The Sierra de San Francisco lies in the El Vizcaíno reserve in Baja California, Mexico. From about 100 BC to AD 1300 a people who have since disappeared left here one of the most outstanding collections of rock paintings in the world, remarkably well preserved and often on a large scale.
- Earliest 16th-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatepetl This serial property of 15 monasteries built in the 16th century lies on the slopes of Popocatepetl in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, Mexico. They were built during the early evangelisation and colonisation of the territories and set a model for monastic architecture elsewhere in the Americas.
- Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal Uxmal is a Maya town in Yucatán, Mexico, founded around AD 700 and home to some 25,000 inhabitants. Its buildings, dating from 700 to 1000, are laid out with a knowledge of astronomy, and the Pyramid of the Soothsayer and the Governor's Palace are masterpieces of the Puuc style.
- Historic Monuments Zone of Querétaro Querétaro, in central Mexico, is unusual in keeping the geometric street plan of the Spanish alongside the twisting alleys of the indigenous quarters, where Otomi, Tarasco, Chichimeca and Spanish people lived together. It has fine churches and houses, and a long aqueduct, from the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara The Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, Jalisco, was built at the beginning of the 19th century to care for and shelter orphans, the elderly, the disabled and the chronically ill. The complex has unusual features designed for its purpose, including many courtyards, and its chapel is decorated with murals by José Clemente Orozco.
- Archaeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes Paquimé, at Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, northern Mexico, reached its peak in the 14th and 15th centuries and played a key role in trade and cultural contacts between the Pueblo culture of the south-western United States and the civilizations of Mesoamerica. The site includes adobe buildings, water works and ball courts.
- Historic Monuments Zone of Tlacotalpan Tlacotalpan is a Spanish colonial river port on the Gulf coast of Mexico, founded in the mid-16th century. It has preserved its original urban fabric to a remarkable degree, with wide streets and colonnaded houses in a profusion of styles and colours.
- Historic Fortified Town of Campeche Campeche, on the western coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, is a typical harbour town of the Spanish colonial period in the New World. Its historic centre keeps its walls and system of fortifications, built to defend the Caribbean port against attacks from the sea.
- Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco Xochicalco, in Morelos state, Mexico, is a well-preserved fortified political, religious and commercial centre of the troubled period of 650–900 that followed the break-up of the great Mesoamerican states such as Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Palenque and Tikal. It includes the Pyramid of the Plumed Serpent and astronomical installations.
- Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul, Campeche Calakmul, in the state of Campeche in southern Mexico, lies deep in the tropical forest of the central and southern Yucatán Peninsula and preserves the remains of an important Maya city. The city played a key role in the history of the Maya lowlands, and the surrounding protected forest is rich in biodiversity.
- Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro The five Franciscan missions of the Sierra Gorda in Querétaro state were built in the mid-18th century in the last phase of the conversion of Mexico's interior, and became a reference for later missions in California and elsewhere. Their church facades blend European Baroque with indigenous decorative traditions.
- Luis Barragán House and Studio The House and Studio of Luis Barragán, in a suburb of Mexico City, was built in 1948 and is an outstanding example of the architect's post-war work, with 1,161 m² of concrete building. It blends modernism with Mexican tradition and is notable for its handling of light, colour and garden space.
- Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California The site comprises 244 islands, islets and coastal areas in the Gulf of California in north-western Mexico. The Sea of Cortez and its islands have been called a natural laboratory for the study of speciation, and almost all the major oceanographic processes of the world's oceans occur there.
- Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila This 34,658 ha site in Jalisco, Mexico, lies between the foothills of the Tequila Volcano and the deep valley of the Rio Grande, within a wide landscape of blue agave. The plant has been used to make tequila since the 16th century, and the site includes distilleries, haciendas and earlier industrial facilities.
- Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) The Central University City Campus of UNAM in Mexico City was built from 1949 to 1952 by more than 60 architects, engineers and artists. Its buildings, sports facilities and open spaces express mid-20th-century modernism combined with Mexican artistic traditions.
- Protective town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico was founded in the 16th century as a fortified town to protect the Royal Road inland and reached its peak in the 18th century, when many Mexican Baroque religious and civic buildings were built. The nearby Sanctuary of Atotonilco, known for its painted interior, remains a pilgrimage site.
- Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve covers 56,259 ha of forested mountains about 100 km north-west of Mexico City. Every autumn millions of monarch butterflies from across North America return to the site and cluster in the fir forest to overwinter.
- Camino Real de Tierra Adentro The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Inland Road or Silver Route, ran north from Mexico City for about 2,600 km. The inscribed property comprises 55 sites along a 1,400 km section, plus five existing World Heritage sites, and records the 16th- to 19th-century transport of silver and the cultural and trade exchange that followed.
- Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla in the Central Valley of Oaxaca This property on the northern slopes of the Tlacolula valley in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, includes the pre-Hispanic complexes of Yagul and Mitla and a series of prehistoric caves and rock shelters. Evidence from the shelters documents some of the earliest plant domestication in the Americas.
- El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve The El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve covers 714,566 ha of the Sonoran Desert in north-western Mexico. It has a dormant volcanic shield of black and red lava flows in the east and shifting sand dunes in the west, and is of great ecological interest.
- Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic System The Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic System, built in the 16th century between the states of Mexico and Hidalgo on the Central Mexican Plateau, comprises a water catchment area, springs, canals, distribution tanks and arcaded aqueduct bridges. It is a major hydraulic work of the 16th century carried out under Franciscan direction.
- Archipiélago de Revillagigedo The Revillagigedo Archipelago in the eastern Pacific consists of four remote islands, San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida and Clarión, with their surrounding waters, the tips of a submerged mountain range. It supports rich marine life, including large pelagic species, and endemic birds.
- Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habitat of Mesoamerica The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley in south-central Mexico is the arid or semi-arid zone with the richest biodiversity in North America and consists of three components. It is also one of the main centres of Mesoamerican agricultural origins, with evidence of early plant domestication and water management.
- Wixárika Route through Sacred Sites to Wirikuta (Tatehuarí Huajuyé) The Wixárika Route is a serial property of 20 sites spread over more than 500 km across five states of north-central Mexico, a braid of trails linking sacred landscapes of the Wixárika Indigenous people. It leads to the sacred place of Wirikuta, and the pilgrimage remains central to the people's spiritual and cultural life.