Elevation of Mexico City

Mexico City elevation at a glance

The centre of Mexico City stands on the bed of the former Lake Texcoco, a high basin closed in by mountains and volcanoes, including Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl to the south-east. The historic centre, the airport and the eastern districts lie on the flat old lake floor at around 2,240 m, while the western and southern boroughs climb the slopes of the Sierra de las Cruces and the Ajusco, where neighbourhoods reach well above 2,500 m. That makes the capital one of the highest large cities on Earth, and a city of more than twelve million people at an altitude that would count as alpine in Europe.

A city that is sinking

Much of Mexico City rests on soft lake clay. Groundwater has been pumped from beneath it for more than a century, the clay compacts, and the ground subsides. In parts of the eastern lake-bed districts the surface drops by tens of centimetres a year, which tilts old churches, cracks streets and slowly changes the elevation of the city. An elevation model is a snapshot of the year it was measured, so a value for the old lake floor may be somewhat too high today.

The radar-based SRTM data used for most of Mexico was recorded in 2000. Where buildings are dense it can also read a few metres above the street, because the radar echo partly comes from roofs.

Living at 2,240 metres

The standard atmosphere at this height has roughly a quarter less air pressure than at sea level. Water boils at about 92–93 °C, cars lose engine power, and footballers from coastal teams famously struggle at the Estadio Azteca. Visitors often feel short of breath on stairs during the first days.

How to find the elevation of a place in Mexico City

1. The map opens on the city point and shows its elevation in the panel.
2. Search for another place or zoom in to the street, park or plot you want.
3. Click the exact spot; each click adds a point with its height in metres and feet.
4. Switch to feet if you prefer, copy the share link, or download the points as CSV or GeoJSON.

The map opens on the GeoNames point for Mexico City and reads its height straight away. Heights come from the open Terrain Tiles dataset and are read in your browser; nothing is uploaded. A city has no single elevation: the number depends on the spot, so the values on this page are a guide, and official heights come from the national mapping agency. Read more in how to find the elevation of a location.