9 de Julio Avenue, Buenos Aires

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This avenue supposed to be the widest avenue of the world with 16 lanes! In fact, it has 12 lanes but the people add the lanes of Pelligrino and Cerrito streets on the left and right of the avenue. July 9, 1816 is the independence day of Argentina. I walked through the avenue many times and it was kind of scary seeing so many cars come and go endlessly!

There are some interesting fountains, statues and shops along the avenue but the basic landmark is the Obelisk that is located at plaza de la Republica. It is known as El Obelisco and it was built in 1936 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first founding of the city. It goes up to 67m and it was nice for me seeing it from distance, day and night! Football fans of River Plate or Boca Juniors come here to celebrate after big wins of their teams.

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? The widest avenue in the world.
Everything looks big here, the buildings, billboards and the Obelisk!
The name of this amazing avenue comes from July 9th of 1816, Independence Day of Argentina.
There are great fountains and places to sit and watch the chaos go by.

This is one of the most important avenues in Buenos Aires. The Obelisco, our most characteristic monument, is located there. If you walk to the east, you'll get to the French embassy, which is a beautiful building. Next to it, there's a famous mansion which was turned into a hotel. Many stars who visited the city have stayed there.
There are almost no shops here, most of the buildings are offices or embassies.

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This avenue is reputed to be the largest avenue in the world and is named after the date when Argentina was granted absolute independance from Spain in 1816. All I know is that it is a real pain to cross due to the amount of traffic. The avenue is about 5 km long and the actual avenue is about 12 lanes wide (I didn't count the lanes, I was too busy trying to negotiate my way across from one side to the other!). On top of that, there is a separate road running parallel on either side of the avenue that you have to get across before actually tackling the avenue itself. You should use the traffic lights to cross the street but use them with care as it seems that traffic can come from any direction and Argentinian drivers do not always allow pedestrians right of way.

However, if you walk along the avenue, you can find some quite interesting land marks, such as the Obelisk, a couple of fountains and several nice buildings (in amongst some quite run down blocks).

The Obelisk can be found on at the junction of Corrientes Avenue and was erected in 1936 to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Pedro de Mendoza's original settlement on the banks of the Rio de la Plata. The monument is 67 metres high and marks the site where the Argentinian flag was first raised.

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Avenida 9 de Julio is reputed to be the widest avenue in the world. At one place, there are up to 9 lanes on each side, in other words, 18 lanes wide. Traffic is always busy here. You need to cross the avenue in a few stages.

The monument right smack in the middle is El Obelisco (The Obelisk) on Plaza de la Republica. This obelisk commemorates the 400th anniversary of the city's founding. This is the crux of Buenos Aires traffic as it can be viewed from various straight avenues radiating out from it, Avenida 9 de Julio, Avenida Corrientes and the Diagonal Roque Saenz Pena.

Staring up at the tip of the immense obelisk as you cross the avenue, you would somewhat Feel.The.Earth.Move.Under.Your.Feet. Or could it be from the 18 lanes of traffic on both sides that are causing the tremors?

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9 de Julio is one of the widest streets in the world. It is 140 metres wide. The street got its name from Argentina's Independence Day which was on 9 July, 1816.

When the street was constructed they had to tear down a lot of buildings as the street spans 2 whole streets. There were a couple of buildings though that were protected (The French Embassy is housed in one) so the street diverts either side of them at that end.

When crossing the street you usually need at least two traffic lights to get across!
There is an excellent view of the Plaza de la Republica and the Obelisk from the 9 de Julio.

The 9 de julio avenue is the world´s widest avenue (125 mts wide). In the intersection of the Corrientes avenue it´s located the famous Obelisco, a hollow cement structure of 65 mts height, one of the icons of the city.

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Aveinue 9 de Julio is the times square of Buenos Aires well worth a walk along the avenue just be careful when trying to cross from one side to the other. Some shopping and resturants but the main attraction at least in the summer are the street preformers doing any number of things. One of the highlights of my time in Buenos Aires was watching tango preformers, magicians, and others preform in the square located in the middle of the avenue.

In 1936, it was there..the people did not like it all, but the time came by, and they simply get used, they just wanted to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Buenos Aires, now Buenos Aires is a beautiful lady of 469 years old, but it is still yummy, delicious, daring and very very ellegant!;)

SEP - SECOND WEEK - 2005

If you give a quick look, you will think that I must be at Trafalgar Square in London....Buenos Aires is so European that makes you think about Europe all the time! But I am right in the most famous corner of the city. Corrientes Avenue and 9 de Julio Avenue. The main theatres of the town are held there, Corrientes is also famous because of the tango A MEDIA LUZ which starts: CORRIENTES, 348, SEGUNDO PISO ASCENSOR, NO HAY PORTEROS NI VECINOS....Tgat numbe is now an ordinary residential building. Anyway, I would say, this is the nervous centre of Buenos Aires as well as Santa Fe and Callao Street...

And the 9 de Julio Avenue has the title of the widest avenue in the world...If you consider that the whole avenue is divided by four parts, when you cross two, you have the red lights, so you cannot cross over in one time unless if you walk very fast, it has more than 400 meters. As a matter of fact that big avenue is a group of 3 paralels streets: CERRITO, 9 DE JULIO AND PELEGRINI.

The avenue is also famous for the stunning obelisk towering over the city..I have heard people calling it as the BA big pennis.

By the way in this picture, I am right in the Obelisk Square in the centre of the Avenue!

it is a very long avenue, it starts at the first train station area called Constituicion in the way to the neighborhood of Barracas and also the big highways heading the south of the country and it ends up in Libertador Avenue very close to Retiro, the biggest train station in the city!