Layout of Taxco
Taxco de Alarcón stands at 1,750 m on the flank of Cerro Atachi, in the northern corner of Guerrero where the Sierra Madre del Sur begins. The site was chosen for the silver under it rather than for the ground, and the town has been built up a slope steep enough that roofs sit at the level of the street above. There is no grid and almost no level ground: the lanes are cobbled in dark stone, follow the contour or climb it in steps, and are narrow enough that the standard taxi is a Volkswagen Beetle or a small combi van. Houses are whitewashed with red tile roofs and wrought-iron balconies, a rule set down when the whole town was declared a national monument in 1928.
Everything converges on the Plaza Borda, a small triangular square halfway up the hill. On it stands the church of Santa Prisca y San Sebastián, finished in 1758 and paid for by José de la Borda out of the profits of his mines: twin towers of pink cantera stone about 40 m high, a Churrigueresque facade, a tiled dome and a set of gilded retablos and paintings by Miguel Cabrera inside. It is the only building in Taxco visible from every approach road. Around the plaza are the Casa Borda of 1759, now a cultural centre, and the Casa Humboldt, an 18th-century merchant's house named for the night Alexander von Humboldt spent in it in 1803 and now the museum of colonial religious art. The Spratling museum sits behind the church.
The main streets — Calle de la Veracruz, Cuauhtémoc and Benito Juárez, where the town hall is — spread out from the plaza, and silver shops occupy most of the ground floors along them. Below the town, the old free Highway 95 runs through the lower districts; the 95D toll motorway between Mexico City and Acapulco passes to the east with its own exit, and the bus terminals are on the highway rather than in the centre. A cable car climbs from the north end of town to the ridge at Monte Taxco, 173 m above it. The municipality had 105,586 residents in 2020, of whom about half live in the town itself.
Distances from Taxco
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grutas de Cacahuamilpa | 30 | 40 min | Hwy 166 north |
| Ixcateopan de Cuauhtémoc | 40 | 1 h | Mountain road west |
| Ixtapan de la Sal | 55 | 1 h | Hwy 55 north |
| Xochicalco ruins | 60 | 1 h | Hwy 95D then local road |
| Cuernavaca | 80 | 1 h 15 | Hwy 95 then 95D |
| Tepoztlán | 100 | 1 h 30 | Hwy 95D then 115D |
| Toluca | 130 | 2 h | Hwy 55 via Ixtapan de la Sal |
| Mexico City | 170 | 2 h 30 | Hwy 95D, bus from Taxqueña |
| Mexico City airport (MEX) | 190 | 2 h 45 | Hwy 95D and the ring road |
| Chilpancingo (state capital) | 190 | 2 h 15 | Hwy 95D south |
| Acapulco | 270 | 3 h 30 | Hwy 95D, the Autopista del Sol |
Silver, the mines and the country around
Mining began here within a decade of the conquest: Spanish crews were working veins at Tetelcingo, below the present town, in the 1530s, and the deposits of silver, lead and zinc have been worked on and off ever since. The eighteenth century was the town's richest period, when Borda's strike at the San Ignacio vein financed Santa Prisca and, according to the phrase attached to him, gave to God what God had given him. Working the metal locally is much more recent. The American architect and writer William Spratling settled in Taxco in 1929 and opened a workshop, Las Delicias, in 1931, training apprentices in designs drawn from pre-Hispanic motifs; the trade grew from that one shop into the town's main employer. The Feria Nacional de la Plata, a national silver competition, has been held here each year since the 1950s, usually in late November or early December. Taxco was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2002.
The country immediately around the town is limestone, which accounts for the caves. The Grutas de Cacahuamilpa, 30 km north on the Morelos border, form one of the larger cave systems open to visitors anywhere: a national park since 1936, with a lit walking route of about 2 km through galleries up to 80 m high, and two rivers that run underground beside it. Xochicalco, about 60 km north-east in Morelos, is a fortified hilltop city of roughly 650–900 AD and a World Heritage Site; the archaeological sites map places it among the other ruins of the central highlands. Ixcateopan de Cuauhtémoc, 40 km west along a mountain road, is a village paved in marble that claims the burial place of the last Mexica ruler. For the highway network south to the coast see the road map, and for the towns north of the sierra the Central Mexico page.
Questions about Taxco
Where is Taxco on the map of Mexico?
In the north of Guerrero at 18.56° N, 99.61° W, 170 km south-west of Mexico City on the 95D motorway and 80 km south-west of Cuernavaca. It sits at 1,750 m on the slope of the Sierra Madre del Sur.
Why is Taxco famous for silver?
Silver has been mined in the hills around it since the 1530s, when the Spanish opened some of the first mines on the North American mainland here. The modern workshop trade dates from 1931, when the American designer William Spratling began training local silversmiths; the town now has hundreds of workshops and shops.
How far is Taxco from Mexico City?
170 km, about 2 h 30 by car on the 95D toll motorway via Cuernavaca. First-class buses run from Mexico City's Taxqueña terminal. There is no airport at Taxco; the nearest with scheduled flights is Mexico City (MEX), 190 km away.
What is there to see near Taxco?
The Grutas de Cacahuamilpa caves are 30 km north, the hilltop ruins of Xochicalco about 60 km north-east, and Ixcateopan de Cuauhtémoc 40 km west. Cuernavaca is 80 km and Tepoztlán about 100 km.