Welcome!
We are a group of junior and high school students from the Professional English School in Mérida, Yucatán, México. We truly enjoyed working on this interesting project and learning more about other countries and cultures.
We congratulate Mrs Susan Biltucci and all the participants for their efforts in fostering friendship and good will amongst all nations and for reminding us that although we are different in many ways , we are the same in one: we are all part of the human race. The day we understand this, there will be lasting peace.

Some astronauts said it better:
'Before I flew I was already aware of how small and vulnerable our planet is; but only when I saw it from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that human kind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations.' -Sigmund Jähn, first German cosmonaut.
'Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty - but no welcome. Bellow was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredible fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's were all thd good stuff is.' -Loren Acton, USA

'A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That's how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. "I could not help but love and cherish her." -Taylor Wang, China/USA
'The first day, we pointed to our countries. Then we were pointing to uour continents. By the fith day we were aware of only ONE EARTH' -Sultan Bin Salmon al-Saud, Saudi Arabia

We now present you with some highlights and interesting facts about México, our little corner on Earth.
We sincerely hope you enjoy the tour.

1.LOCATION: Middle America, bordering the Caribean Sea and the Gulf of México, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the US:

2. PRE-COLUMBIAN DAYS: México had the most highly developed pre-Columbine civilization in the American Continent, from the rising of the Olmec and Maya cultures to the fall of the Aztec empire.

3. MAYAN NUMERIC SYSTEM: Ancient Maya discovered two fundamental ideas in mathematics: positional value and the concept of zero. This feat was acomplished by only one other great culture of antiquity, the Hindu. But they did it 300 years or so after the Maya.

4. MÉRIDA: Our beautiful city is the capital of the State of Yucatán. It was founded in 1542 by the Spaniard Francisco de Montejo over the ruins of the Mayan city T'ho and receiving its name to evoke the conquerors the city of Mérida in Spain.
Mérida is known as the White City, nowadays one of the most tranquil and safest cities in México. Mérida is a captivating mixture of cultural influences.

5. SPANISH AND FRENCH HERITAGE: During the course of its history, it has been ruled by two foreign nations: Spain and France. From 1519 to 1910, México was under Spanish rule. Spain formally recognized México's independence in 1836. In 1864 Napoleon III of France sent Archduke Ferdinand Maxmilian of Habsburg, Austria and his wife, princess Charlotte of Belgium, to establish a monarchy in México and rule as emperor. On the fifth of May 1862 (cinco de mayo) the Mexican army in Puebla defeated the French troops.

6. LA CASA DE MONTEJO: The Palacio Montejo. Its facade, with heavy decoration around the doorway and windows, is in the Spanish architectural style known as plateresque. Construction of the house started in 1542 under the son, Francisco Montejo El Mozo ("The Younger"). Bordering the entrance are figures of conquistadors standing on the heads of vanquished Indians.

8. CANTON PALACE: The museum is located on the main avenue of Mérida, the Paseo de Montejo, on the corner of Street 43. Its headquarters are in one of the most inposing buildings of the city, designed by the Italian architect Enrico Deserti. It was built in the first decade of the 20th century, to be the residence of the ex-governor of Yucatán, General Francisco Canton, under the direction of the Yucatecan architect Manuel G. Canton Ramos.

9. MONUMENTO A LA PATRIA: (Monument to the Fatherland). Where the sculptor Romulo Rosso shaped the history of México. The Ancient Casa Real, actually the Government Palace, houses 27 murals illustrating historical representations from the Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Eras. It is located in the traditional Paseo Montejo, designed to emulate the Champs Elysees.

10. THE LARGEST PYRAMID: In terms of volume, the largest pyramid in the world is in Chichén-Itzá, Yucatán, México. It is called kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl and was build around the year 100 by the Maya out of sun-dried bricks and earth. Although only 177 feet high, less than 40% of the height of the Egyptian Pyramid of Cheops, it covers an area of 45 acres. In contrast, the Pyramid of Cheops is 480 feet high but covers an area of "only" 13 acres. It has been estimated that the Mexican pyramid is a million cubic yards greater in volume than the Pyramid of Cheops.

11. TOURISM: Tourism has become an important industry. The Mexican government began to develop Cancún into a mejor resort on the Caribbean in the 1970s.
Cancun is perfectly suited for exploring some of the Yucatán Peninsula's most spectacular ruins, including Tulum, a seaside city facing a blue lagoon, and the sacred city of Chichen-Itza. Built on the sunken ruins of a Mayan port city, Xcaret is an amazing water park tha combines ecology and archaeology. The ruins of the highly developed Mayan civilization at Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Dzibichaltun and Tulum, and other sites have attracted icreasing numbers of tourists.

12: DZIBICHALTUN: It is an archaeological zone and eco-tourism park located between Puerto Progresso and Mérida. Dzibichaltun was once of the great urban centers that flourished in the north of the peninsula. With a huge water well, a population history of more than 200,000 inhabitants, and a total of 8,400 structures, Dzibichaltun is currently a great regional attraction.

8. FAUNA: There are more then 170 countries in the world. All of these 12 alone harbor in between 60 and 70% of the total biodiversity of the planet and thus earn the privilege to be called mega diverse. You can find Mexico, together with Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia, on the very top of the list taking up the first place in reptile diversity, second in mammals, fourth in amphibians and vascular plants and tenth in birds.

9.WATERFALLS: Chiapas Agua Azul, one of the principal waterfalls where the surrounding forests are home to many endemic species of fauna like jaguar, bobcat, tapir and many species of birds.

10. CENOTES: The natural wonders of the state of Yucatán are innumerable and some of the most important and unusual cenotes (seh-NOH-tes) or sink holes. In the Yucatán there are over 3000 cenotes. There are four different types of cenotes - those that are completely underground, semi-underground, at land level like a lake or pond, and those that are open wells, like the one on Chichén-Itzá.

11. PIÑATA: Most people think of piñatas as a fun activity for parties. The history of the piñata reveals many interesting facts that go beyond the playing of a game, although piñatas certainly have been intended for fun. Traditionally, piñatas are filled with both candies and fruits. Around Christmas in México, wrapped candies, peanuts, stuff piñatas.

12. MAYAN HANDCRAFTS: Artisans both ancient and modern, have always exploited natural materials available in the region. For centuries, the Maya have woven the fronds of native palms and rattan vines to make baskets, hats and hammocks; worked wood from the vast forests and jungles in myriad different ways; carved fabulous stele and scultures from great blocks of stone; and mounted locally-mined amber and jade into finely-crafted gold and silver pieces.

13. MUSIC: For many decades, mariachi has been widely considered to be the Mexican folk music, and has become an important symbol of Mexican music and culture.

14. FOOD: Tortilla a thin pancake made from cornmeal. Named by the Spanish conquistadors - tortillas are an important part of the diet of México and other Latin American countries. In Spanish cookery a tortilla is a flat omelette usually filled with potatoes, onions, or sal cod, which is cut into quarters like a cake. Tortillas date back as far as 10,000 years before Christ. It was the principal food of Aztecs who were the dominant people in Meso-America in 1519.

15. NATURAL CONTAINERS AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: The secret is that, when dried, the gourd's rind is as hard as wood. Around the world, many cultures have used gourds to make boxes, water bottles and even music. Latin American music uses many gourd musical instruments including the maracas, the shekere (tipes of rattles) and a rasping scraper called the guiro (literally Spanish for "gourd").

16. CHEWING GUM: Did you know that among the many things Máxico has given to the world, chewing gum is one of them? El Tzictlil, a Nahuatl word for resin from the Zapote Blanco tree, caught the attention of three American travelers, Thomas Adams, Hohn Colgan and Willian Wrigley who noticed that the resin hardened when exposed to air. They began to export the resin in blocks and in 1869 the three men found a way to vulcanize it into a kind of paraffin. They shaped the substance into balls, calling it "Adam's Chewing Gum from New York" and sold it for a penny a piece. Soon they developed a machine to cut the blocks of gum into strips and added sweetener and flavor.

17. CHOCOLATE: Almost unknown, but the original cacao seeds were found in México and spread around the world in the 16th century. México gave chocolate to the world. Shortly after arriving at Tenochtitlán in the fall of 1519, Hernán Cortés and the Spanish conquistadores were granted an audience with Mozctezuma at his breakfast table.

They found the Aztec ruler sipping an exotic drink called xocóatl (meaning bitter water). Made from ground cacao beans boiled in water, flavored with vanilla and other tropical spices, and chilled with bits of snow from nearby mountain tops, the pungent beverage was, the Spanish reported, "of a very exciting nature".

18. SILVER: México is teh biggest producer of silver in the world. This metal has been extracted since the colonial times during which Spaniards considered silver more valuable than gold. Although a great amount of silver has already been mined, there is much left.

19. HAMMOCKS: Hand woven in villages in the Yucatán jungle, hammocks have been used as beds for centuries by descendents of the ancient Mayans. Made up of two miles of cotton cord, suspended from undreds of strands of resilient nylon or cotton cord. Provide perfect balance and extraordinary back support.

20. THE LARGEST CRATER ON EARTH: Chicxulub structure occurs along the northern coast of Yucatán peninsula in the Gulf of México. It is now widely believed that the Chicxulub structure represents a large meteorite impact that was responsible, at least in part, for the mass extinctions at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) boundary. Chicxulub is certainly one of the largest impact structure on Earth and if the 300 km size estimate is proven correct, perhaps one of the largest produced in the inner system in the last billion years.

21. A PREHISTORIC DOG, THE XOLOITZUINTLI (Xolo): One of the world's oldest breeds, the Soloitzcuintli (show-low-eats-queen-tlee) can justly be called "the first dog of the Americas". According to archaeological evidence, early forerunners of the modern Xolo first occurred over 3,000 years ago. Today the Xolo is protected and venerated in its nativa land; designated as a national treasure.

22. THE OLDEST OBSERVATORY: In Chichén-Itzá, between 800 and 1200 A.D. the Maya built the grandiose circular observatory called by Spaniards El Caracol, word for "snail". It is

It is a monument which illustrates the Mayas' deep interese in both astronomy and architecture.
Inside the tower there are a number of small windows that were used to study the movements of the stars as well as unusual stairway, resembling a snail shell, which leads to the highest part of the tower for closer observations.
The Maya's deep interest in astronomy and calendars helped the Mayas to establish the cycle for sowing crops and other activities important to the economic and social life of the city. The tower is about 13 meters in height and the observatory measures 22.5 meters high.

23. CHAPULTEPEC CASTLE, MÉXICO CITY: A French invasion changed the landscape of Chapultepec as the construction of the Imperial Palace of Maximilian von Habsburg and the layout of a majestic avenue to connect the Castle with Mésico City were initiated. Plans were drawn up in France to add a second floor to the principal facade of the main building, including the Fortress, and renovations were completed to convert the Castle into a regal residential palace.

24. AHEAD OF HER TIME: We are honored to present to you the greatest poet the American continent produced in the seventeenth century. She was born November 12, 1651, in San Miguel Nepantla, a village south of México City. She was a Poet Nun, a woman of genius, and a person of intellectual prowess whose ideas and accomplishements were ahead of her time.

She herself said that when she was six or seven, that she begged her mother to let her dress up in men's clothes and allow her to go and study in México University, which only men were allowed to attend. She continued to publish, and wrote a group of eight villancicos on the life of St Catharine of Alexandria some of which have a defiant feminist tone. In April of 1695, while looking after her sick sisters, she contracted the plague and died on 17th April at age 46.

25. ISLA MUJERES: It is located only 7 km. from the Cancun Hotel Zone. The Island is 7.5 km. long and the widest point is 650 meters.
Isla Mujeres was discovered by a Spanish expedition on March 4, 1517. Francisco Hernández Córdoba, who was leading the expedition, gave Isla Mujeres its name. On the island he found female shaped idols which were representations of the Mayan Godness Ixchel, whose sanctuary was in Isla Mujeres. On August 17, 1850. Isla Mujeres was also a stronghold for firates. You can visit the pirate Mundaca's hacienda. If you visit the graveyard located on the northern end of the island, you will find various head stones engraved with the skull and crossbones. The Island regained fame in the 70's when the caves of the sleeping sharks were brought to the world's attention by Jaques Cousteau. The Island is also known for excellent snorkeling.