Mexico’s indigenous roots and culture are present in every part of D.F.—from the remnants of ancient Aztec capital in the Centro Histórico to the archaeological and anthropological treasures in the world-renowned Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia. A visitor could easily spend a week on a tour of just cultural and archaeological sites.

CENTRO HISTÓRICO
The crown of the Centro’s Aztec past is of course the Templo Mayor, just off the northeast side of the Zócalo. Walking around the pathways through the ruins feels like—is, really—tapping into Mexico City’s very foundation. Inside the adjacent museum are some 7,000 artifacts from the site, including the famous eight-ton circular stone adorned with carvings of the moon goddess Coyolxuahqui. Remnants of the ancient Aztec capital are found in the unlikeliest spots around the Centro, like the serpent’s head cornerstone of the colonial palace that houses the Museo de la Ciudad. For a taste of indigenous culture, literally, head over to the Fonda Don Chon, a humble little eatery on a backstreet that specializes in all sorts of well-prepared Aztec delicacies, like gusanos de maguey (cactus worms) or venado con huitlacoche (deer meat with corn fungus)—definitely for the brave, but good.

CHAPULTEPEC
A lengthy stop at the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Chapultepec is obligatory for those with a strong interest in Mexico’s indigenous cultures. If you could actually take the time to read and digest all the information in the 23 halls of the vast museum (impossible!), you’d be a world-class expert. Outside the museum you can see some of that culture in action, watching the trapezelike spectacle of the voladores de Papantla, costumed indigenous men from Veracruz who swing around a tall pole with ropes around their feet. Just across the street, the hill underneath the Castillo de Chapultepec was a sacred shrine of the Aztecs for the water that sprung from its base, and although you can’t see them now, the portraits of Aztec emperors were carved in the hillside, à la Mt. Rushmore.

SOUTHERN MEXICO CITY
A couple of millennia ago, the area just south of the national university was the site of the first urban settlement in the Valle de México, Cuicuilco. Although it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the ruins of Cuicuilco are still there, poking up out of a hardened lava field right at the intersection of Avenida Insurgentes and the Periférico Sur, easily accessible for a short visit. Further east is Cerro de la Estrella, a small volcanic cone where the Aztecs used to light their 52-year fire, which they believed renewed the world. Nowadays the hill is the site of the city’s biggest annual Passion Play reenactment during Semana Santa (Holy Week). Also worth seeing in the south is the Museo Anahuacalli, built by Mexican painter Diego Rivera to resemble a Mesoamerican pyramid and filled with his collection of prehispanic artifacts.

NORTHERN MEXICO CITY
Not exactly indigenous, properly speaking, the Basílica de Guadalupe, Mexico’s most popular religious shrine, nonetheless has a deep connection to Mexico’s prehispanic past. It’s hard to believe it was a coincidence that la virgen morena (the dark-skinned virgin) appeared on the hill of Tepayac, site of the Aztec shrine to the goddess Tonantzin, almost five centuries ago. It’s an amazing sight to witness the humble peasants from across Mexico, many of them indigenous, thronging the Basílica, waiting their turn to pray in front of the Virgin. Also in northern Mexico City are two archeological sites, the pre-Aztec pyramid of Tenayuca, dating to at least the 11th century, and the larger Aztec pyramid, Santa Cecilia Acatitlán.

AROUND MEXICO CITY
Most people will make a beeline to Teotihuacán as their first destination outside the city, as well they should. But the adventurous might want to stop at a much less frequented but surprisingly extensive ruin not far away: the Baños de Nezahualcóyotl, on a mountainside near Texcoco. Other ruins not far from Mexico City include the hilltop city of Xochicalco, near Cuernavaca, and the warrior shrine carved into solid rock outside Malinalco. Those interested in Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec ruler, might want to make a pilgrimage to Ixcateopan, a remote village in the Guerrero mountains, a two-hour drive from Taxco. This was Cuauhtémoc’s birthplace, and if you believe local legend, it is also the place where his body was buried after he was killed by the Spanish.