Zócalo Constitution Plaza - Mexico City, Mexico

The Zócalo, officially the Plaza de la Constitución, is one of the biggest city squares on Earth, right in the heart of Mexico City, with a giant flag flying in the middle.

The huge Metropolitan Cathedral fills one side and the National Palace runs along another, and both stand on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the old Aztec capital. The historic center around the square is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is where the country comes together, for concerts, festivals, protests and parades, and on big nights it can fill with tens of thousands of people. The biggest night of all is September 15, when the square packs out for the Grito, the shout from the palace balcony that starts Independence Day.

Did You Know? Zócalo means "plinth" or "base". In 1843 a base was built here for an independence monument, but the money ran out, the monument was never finished and the name stuck.

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