The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro includes five sites already inscribed on the World Heritage List and 55 other sites distributed along 1,400 of the 2,600 km of this long route that starts in northern Mexico and reaches Texas and New Mexico in the United States. Used between the 16th and 19th centuries, this road was used to transport silver extracted from the mines of Zacatecas, Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí, as well as mercury imported from Europe. Although its origin and use are linked to mining, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro also fostered the establishment of social, cultural and religious links between Hispanic and Amerindian cultures.

Paleontological deposit, whose density in terms of elements recovered makes it one of the richest deposits of late Pleistocene and early Holocene fauna excavated to date in the entire American continent.

Initiated by the Franciscan friar, Tembleque, and built with the local indigenous communities, this hydraulic system is an example of the exchange of influences between the European tradition of Roman hydraulics and traditional Mesoamerican construction techniques, including the use of adobe. The site incorporates the highest single-level arcade ever built in an aqueduct.

The holy city of Teotihuacan (the place where the gods were created) it is characterized by the size of its monuments –in particular, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, laid out on geometric and symbolic principles. As one of the most powerful cultural centres in Mesoamerica, it extended its cultural and artistic influence throughout the region, and even beyond.

The 56,259 ha biosphere lies within rugged forested mountains about 100 km northwest of Mexico City. Every autumn, millions butterflies from wide areas of North America return to the site and cluster on small areas of the forest reserve, colouring its trees orange and bending their branches under their collective weight.

This site in the Ecatepec neighborhood reveals aspects of the hydraulic infrastructure in pre-Hispanic times, and is where José María Morelos y Pavón, hero of Mexican Independence, would spend his last hours of life.

Located in Naucalpan de Juárez, not far from the Periférico Norte (highway) in the northern suburbs of Mexico City, this site offers something unusual, a palace belonging to the fifteenth century pre-Hispanic nobility, one of the few examples of the civic architecture of the period.

Seven and a half centuries ago, three Chichimeca lords arrived in Chimalhuacán (abandoned since the fall of Tula), and re-founded a city which became a great Acolhua capital. As a testimony they left the Tecpan, the superb palace of their Tlatoani (chief), and a great number of excellent sculptures, which was their main activity.

The great Mesoamerican city was at the heart of politics, the economy, trade, religion and culture. Its influence reached such distant places as Tikal. The city of Teotihuacan was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987, owing to the outstanding value of its monumental building complexes, mural paintings and living areas.