Cancun (pronounced as [kan´kun]) is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucatan Peninsula best known as the Mexican Caribbean or at the northern section of the Mayan Riviera.

It is the municipal seat of Benito Juarez municipality and a world-renowned tourist resort. The city center is located on the mainland which connects over the Nichupte and Bojorquez lagoons to a narrow "7" shaped island where the modern beachfront hotels are located. The island of Isla Mujeres is a nearby island located off the coast and is accessible by boat from Puerto Juarez or Punta Sam.

History

Originally known as Ekab (Black Earth), what is now the northern district of the state of Quintana Roo was thickly populated by people speaking the language now known as Maya when the Spanish arrived, according to conquistator Bernal Diaz del Castillo. In the years after the Conquest, most of the population died or left as a result of disease, warfare, piracy and other factors, leaving only small settlements on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel Island.

According to the Cancun User's Guide by Jules Siegel (an American journalist who has resided in Cancun since 1983), Cancun resulted from a 1967 study by the Bank of Mexico to determine the feasibility of a tourism development. When it was started on Jan. 23, 1970, Isla Cancun had only three residents, caretakers of a coconut plantation, 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," Siegel writes, "the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels." He reports that the first hotel financed was the Cancun Caribe (now a Hyatt hotel), but that the first hotel actually built was the Playa Blanca, now the Blue Bay Village.

The city has grown rapidly over the past thirty years to become a city of approximately 600,000 residents, covering the former island and the nearby mainland.

Tourism

There are about 140 hotels in Cancun with more than 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily. The Hotel Zone of Cancun is shaped like a 7 with bridges on each end connecting to the mainland. Resorts on the horizontal or short end of the seven tend to have more gentle surf because the waves here are blocked by the island of Isla Mujeres which lies just off shore. The Hotel Zone offers a broad range of accommodations, ranging from relatively inexpensive motel-style facilities in the older section closest to the mainland, to luxury hotels in the later sections.

Many of the hotels are time-share condominiums with kitchen facilities. Some are all inclusive hotels which offer unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, hotel activities, entertainment, non-motorized water sports, and discounts on tours to the Mayan ruins. Travelers will find many well-known theme restaurants and clubs here.

On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is the Nichupte Lagoon, which is used for boating excursions and jet-ski jungle tours.

Cancun has everything: crystal clear water, white sand beach, some of the finest hotels in the world, superb restaurants, modern convention facilities, and vibrant nightlife.

Cancun is also a gateway to the wonders of the Mexican Caribbean and the Maya world, as well as the vast nature reserves of the state of Quintana Roo. Cancun is one of the world's best-known vacation spots. Its sophisticated infrastructure and world-class tourism services have made it the Caribbean's premier vacation destination.