Oddly enough, in the middle of the broad, flat valley which is filled by Mexico City, there is a rather abrupt change in geography as a towering, rocky mesa thrusts itself up above the valley floor.  It is not all that wide, but it is wide enough to hold a castle on the top, and that castle is known as Chapultapec. 

Chapultapec is a historic fortress that has been, at different times, both a military cadet training academy and a political leaders' residence.  In modern times it is a museum which houses a lot of precious articles which are a crucial part of Mexican history. 

Surrounded by the largest park in Mexico City, one enjoys a short but nice walk through the trees before arriving at the foot of the hill.  Here, we had the option of walking up the long, gradual pathway to the top, or just catching a little tram disguised as a train.  Choosing the latter, we quickly arrived at the gates to a courtyard, and here we encountered the strictest security of any place we visited in Mexico City (metal detector, backpack search, etc).  Once inside, the courtyard expanded out along the front of the castle (Image 1).  From here, I caught yet another powerful view over the endless city.

The castle's entranceway is majestic, with a grand parting staircase and curving arches to walk under.  The most incredible thing here, however, was the mural that was directly overhead on the elevated ceiling (Image 2).  There is a great story behind this mural, which I will attempt to recall accurately.  Back in history, when Mexico was at war with America, the American forces had pretty much taken everything except for Chapultapec.  Here, atop the hill, the castle at that time was a military cadet training academy. Using the advantage of their hilltop position, the cadets were the last to hold out against the invading troops.  However, through much battle, the Americans continued to prevail until there was just a handful of cadets left who were not willing to surrender.  Knowing they could no longer hope to conquer the Americans, these cadets (probably not much older than boys) ascended to the top of one of the towers of the fortress, wrapped themselves proudly in a Mexican flag, and jumped to their death.  The mural depicts one of these boys during his valiant fall, with some fantastically rendered things going on around the fringes of the painting.  Although I had never known of it previously, I would now count this mural among my favorite works of art.

The inside of the castle includes a couple of large open areas (Image 3) and lots of rooms winding about all over the place.  The rooms of part of the castle are now a museum, with everything from articles of warfare to artwork of historical emperors to objects of Catholic significance.

We did not spend a whole bunch of time at Chapultapec, but Billy Moore stressed to us how privileged we were to visit it.  To the Mexican people, visiting Chapultapec is like visiting the White House to us, and because of the economic situations, there are a lot of Mexican citizens who go through a whole lifetime never getting to visit Chapultapec.