Welcome to Yucatán!
Yucatán is a state in the north western part of the Yucatán Peninsula, with its coastline facing the Gulf of Mexico. To the east is the state of Quintana Roo, home of Cancun and Cozumel, Campeche is to the south. Yucatán is where the Chicxulub Crater is located, geologists say that this crater dates back approx 65 million years from the Earth's collision with a meteorite, and it is implicated with the extinction of the dinosaurs. Around 1000 AD, Yucatán was one of the centers of the Maya civilization. While their big cities and temples have fallen to ruins long before the arrival of the Spaniards the Maya people still make up much of the state's population. The Spanish came to conquer in the 1500s, and their descendants stayed and contributed to the historic heritage of Yucatán. In the late 1800s Henequen cactus was the "green gold" of Yucatan and was responsible for much of the wealth of Yucatan. Henequen made Yucatan into one of Mexico’s richest States. Today, one can still visit some of the henequen producing haciendas that reflect this wealth.
Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 106 municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. It is located on the north part of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is bordered by the states of Campeche to the southwest and Quintana Roo to the southeast, with the Gulf of Mexico off its north coast.
Before the arrival of Spaniards to the Yucatán Peninsula, the name of this region was Mayab. In the Yucatec Maya language, mayab is translated as "flat", and is the source of the word "Maya" itself. It was a very important region for the Maya civilization, which reached the peak of its development here, where the Mayans founded the cities of Chichen Itza, Izamal, Motul, Mayapan, Ek' Balam and Ichcaanzihóo (also called T'ho), now Mérida.After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, the Peninsula was a single administrative and political entity, the Captaincy General of Yucatán. Following independence and the breakup of the Mexican Empire in 1823, the first Republic of Yucatán was proclaimed, which was then voluntarily annexed to the Federal Republic of United Mexican States on December 21, 1823. On March 16, 1841, as a result of cultural and political conflicts around the federal pact, Yucatán declared its independence from Mexico. forming a second Republic of Yucatán. Eventually on July 14, 1848, Yucatán was forced to rejoin Mexico. In 1858, in the middle of the caste war, the state of Yucatán was divided for the first time, establishing Campeche as a separate state (officially in 1863). During the Porfiriato, in 1902, the state of Yucatán was divided again to form the Federal territory that later became the present state of Quintana Roo.Today, Yucatán is the safest state in Mexico and Mérida was awarded City of Peace in 2011.