Cancún is a coastal city in Mexico’s easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula. As a rapidly growing city with a quickly changing skyline, the estimated population for Cancún is 705,000 in 2010, a 20% increase from the census in 2005. Cancún is located on the Yucatan Channel that separates Mexico from the island of Cuba in the Greater Antilles. The Cancún region is sometimes known as the Mexican Caribbean or the Mayan Riviera.
Cancún is the municipal seat of the Benito Juárez municipality and a world-renowned balneario and tourist resort. The city center is located on the mainland which connects the Nichupté and lagoons to a narrow 7-shaped island where the modern beachfront hotels are located in the tourist centric hotel zone.
The name Cancún, Cancum or Cankun first appears on maps from the 18th century. The meaning of Cancún is unknown, and it is also unknown whether the name is of Maya origin. If it is of Maya origin, possible translations include “Place/Seat/Throne of the Snake” or “Enchanted Snake”. Snake iconography was prevalent at the pre-Columbian site of Nizuc.
When development was started on Jan. 23, 1970, Isla Cancún had only three residents, caretakers of the coconut plantation of Don José de Jesús Lima Gutiérrez, who lived on Isla Mujeres, and there were only 117 people living in nearby Puerto Juarez, a fishing village and military base.
Due to the reluctance of investors to bet on an unknown area, the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels. The first hotel financed was the Hyatt Cancun Caribe, but the first hotel actually built was the Playa Blanca, which later became a Blue Bay hotel, and is now Temptation Resort. At the time it was an elite destination, famous for its virgin white sand beaches.
Most ‘Cancunenses’ here are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. A growing number are from the rest of the Americas and Europe. The municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as to control squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city.
On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is the Nichupté Lagoon, which is used for boating excursions and jet-ski jungle tours.
Cancún is also the gateway to the Riviera Maya, another tourist pull in the area, where people go attracted by the numerous archaeological sites, as Cobá and Tulum, the many cenotes, charming towns as Playa del Carmen and theme parks such as Xcaret Eco Park, Xel-Ha and Xplor.
English Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor has created a monumental underwater art museum in the National Marine Park of Cancun. The Museo Subacuatico de Arte (MUSA), the Cancun underwater museum, will consist of more than 400 life-sized sculptures creating artificial reefs for marine life to colonise and inhabit. The works are located in clear shallow waters and visible to divers, snorkelers and visitors in glass-bottomed boats.
