Why is Ancient San Miguelito Cancún’s Obscure Maya Wonder?
Tucked between five-star resorts along Cancún’s hotel zone sits the remains of the Prehispanic settlement of San Miguelito.
Though the site opened to the public in 2012, it is rarely visited, and most tourists and even locals are unaware of its existence.
The site is named after a coconut plantation that existed in the same spot in the 1950s. The settlement’s original name has been lost to time.
San Miguelito dates to the late post-classical period as its structures are estimated to have been built between the 11th and 13th centuries.
As with older settlements in the region, including El Rey, El Meco, and Xelha, San Miguelito’s architecture is consistent with the Costa Oriental style.
One interesting aspect of San Miguelito’s architecture is that most (if not all) of its structures show evidence of having been topped by thatched roofs. This is instead of the more laborious corbel arched ceilings of previous eras.
While one could perhaps see this as a sign of a loss of architectural sophistication, remember that Yucatán’s northeastern coast is hurricane-prone. Maintaining stone and mortar roofs would have been tremendously difficult for a settlement of this size.
By the 10th century, most of the major regional city-states in northeastern Yucatán, such as Cobá and Chunyaxché had begun to lose the ability to control vast swaths of territory. As a result, smaller chiefdoms began to emerge to fill the power vacuum.
Both San Miguelito and nearby El Rey belonged to a chiefdom known as Kuchkabal or Ekab, which roughly translates to “dark soil.”
Given the amount of salt in the soil along the coast, it is unlikely that the surrounding San Miguelito area was suited for traditional Mesoamerican crops like maize, squash, and beans. Though it’s possible, and even likely, that the settlement cultivated these staples further inland, the community likely relied largely on seafood for their own consumption and trade.
Visiting the archaeological site today, one follows a reasonably straightforward looping circuit of roughly 15 surviving structures divided into five main architectural groups.
The first group one sees when following the path is the Chaac Group, after the architectural allusions to the Mayan rain god of the same name.
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Next found on the path is called the Dragon’s Group because the figures of the mighty feather serpent Kukulkán were first mistaken for dragons.
But perhaps the most interesting feature of the Dragon’s Group is the surviving, though highly damaged, murals found within the largest structure of the complex.
As one approaches the end of the path laid out by INAH, a large pyramid comes into view.
San Miguelito’s pyramid is a five-level tier construction topped with a ceremonial altar, likely covered with a thatched roof.
Though historical records regarding San Miguelito during the 16th century are scarce, there is good reason to believe the settlement was still going strong by the time the first Europeans began to arrive in the western Caribbean.
If you go
The archaeological site of San Miguelito is within a museum complex in Cancún’s hotel zone, the Museo Maya de Cancún.
The museum is well worth a visit, and admission is included in the 95-peso ticket to enter San Miguelito. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Doors close at 4:30 p.m.
The facilities at the museum are good and include clean bathrooms and more than enough space for parking.
Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican expedition/Canadian photographer, adventure leader, and PhD candidate. Born in Mérida, Carlos holds multimedia, philosophy, and translation degrees from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
