"Built on the site of the last Aztec emperor's home, this enormous Palace was once the home of Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, and has been the seat of Mexican government since gaining independence from Spain. While there are tours of the palace's architecture and a few galleries dedicated to the 19th-century president Benito Juarez, the real highlight is Diego Rivera's massive mural representing the entire history of the Mexican people from its indigenous origins, to the Spanish conquest, to the arrival of Marxist ideology—Rivera was an ardent communist. Like many of his murals, it's a historical who's who. The Palace is sometimes closed to visitors, so it's worth calling ahead."