Cuernavaca [key], city, capital of Morelos state, S Mexico, in the Cuernavaca Valley. Increasingly a suburb of Mexico City (to the north), Cuernavaca has flour mills and beverage, textile, and cement industries. It is also a popular tourist and health resort. In the city are beautiful churches, monasteries, a 16th-century Franciscan convent, a palace built by Hernán Cortés and decorated with murals by Diego Rivera, and a formal garden that was frequented by Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlotta. Nearby is the Toltec ruin, Xochicalco, built over limestone caves.
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