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Isla Mujeres (Spanish for Women Island) is one of the ten municipalities of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The municipality, located in the northeastern corner of the state is mostly on the mainland and has a municipal seat of the same name; Isla Mujeres. The municipal seat is a small island town a short distance off the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) northeast of Cancún. The island is some 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long and 650 metres (2,130 ft) wide. In the 2005 census, the town had a population of 11,147.
Mayan History
In Pre-Columbian times the island was sacred to the Mayan aged goddess of childbirth and medicine, Ix Chel. When the Spanish arrived here in the 16th century they named it “Isla Mujeres” because of the many cult images of goddesses here. But the first news we have about Isla Mujeres are from the period between the years 564 – 1516 AC, when the island was part of the mayan province called Ekab (there where 4 mayan provinces in what is today the State of Quintana Roo). Since then, the island was considered sacred by the mayan civilization, therefore, this was not a mayan village where to live in, but a sanctuary dedicated to mayan goddess Ixchel. Besides this, the mayan also exploited the salt that the
Aerial view
island produced in the “salinas” (small interior lagoons) that back in those times, the salt was used not only for the conservation of food and medicine but also has a generally accepted currency for commerce of goods along the whole mayan region. The Mayan goddess Ixchel had a temple in what is today the Hacienda Mundaca (Mundaca’s Plantation House). There was a small Mayan temple on the south tip of the island, however in 1988 Hurricane Gilbert caused extensive damage to it, leaving most of the foundation and a very small portion of the temple. Since the 1970s along with Cancún there has been substantial development for tourism in Isla Mujeres.
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Source: Wikipedia
