Mexico · Ciudad de México · Mexico City
Iztapalapa, Mexico City — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Iztapalapa is a borough on the eastern side of Mexico City, built around the volcanic hill of Cerro de la Estrella.
About Iztapalapa
Where to stay in Iztapalapa
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Iztapalapa is a dense residential borough, not a hotel quarter. Hotel rooms are hard to come by in this crowded Mexico City borough. Most visitors base themselves in central Mexico City and ride out to see Cerro de la Estrella, the Museo Fuego Nuevo, and the old monastery at Culhuacán, then head back at night.
The streets around Cerro de la Estrella climb toward the archaeological site. Plan day trips, sleep elsewhere.
About Iztapalapa
What are the main landmarks in Iztapalapa?
The borough's landmarks gather around one hill. Cerro de la Estrella rises above the streets, crowned by the Zona Arqueológica Cerro de la Estrella, where the Mexica once lit the New Fire that renewed their world every fifty-two years. The Museo Fuego Nuevo explains that rite at the foot of the slope.
Nearby, the Ex Convento de San Juan Evangelista at Culhuacán keeps its colonial cloisters, while the Museo de las Culturas Pasión por Iztapalapa records the borough's own Passion procession.
What is the history of Iztapalapa?
Iztapalapa's story begins on the water. The old town sat on the shore of a lake beside Cerro de la Estrella, and Culhuacán nearby was one of the earliest Mexica settlements in the valley. On the hilltop the New Fire ceremony marked the turn of each fifty-two-year cycle.
The lake drained. The former municipality became a borough of Mexico City in 1928, and the Ex Convento de San Juan Evangelista survived from colonial times as its neighbourhoods spread across the flats below the hill.
Where is Iztapalapa?
Iztapalapa spreads across the flat eastern side of Mexico City, its low streets rising toward the volcanic cone of Cerro de la Estrella.
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Updated July 2026