Balneario El Paraiso Oaxtepec

Balneario El Paraíso Oaxtepec is a thermal resort in the Aztec sacred site of Oaxtepec in the state of Morelos, Mexico, where bicarbonate thermal waters have been valued since the pre-Columbian era — Oaxtepec was the site of the legendary royal botanical garden of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma I, established in the 15th century as the first systematic botanical garden in Mesoamerica, exploiting the warm thermal waters for irrigating tropical plants from distant regions of the empire. The hot springs of Oaxtepec were used by the Aztec nobility for ritual bathing, and after the Conquest, Dominican friars established a hospital here in 1559 — making Oaxtepec one of the Americas' earliest organized thermal sites. Today Balneario El Paraíso continues the recreational use of the bicarbonate springs that have been central to Oaxtepec's identity since the height of the Aztec Empire.