Muyil Ruins

Address:on Federal Highway 307, Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Muyil and Chunyaxche, the modern names used to refer to this archaeological site, derived from two lagoons located on the area's outskirts. Muyil, the most notable of the 22 pre-Hispanic settlements of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve is 12 kilometers from the Caribbean Sea.

Architecturally, the site is divided intro two sectors: Muyil A and Muyil B. The
first of these is open to the public and extends across 38 hectares; it was a densely populated settlement during the prehispanic era, as can be evidenced by the great quantity of civic-religious and residential constructions registered. The second sector consists of small nucleus situated 2 kilometers to the northeast of the first.

Information obtained up to now indicates that Mayan groups began to populate the site at around 300 B.C.. And probably remained there until the first decades of the 16th century, when Francisco de Montero led the spanish conquest of Yucatan. According to Colonial period documents, the first campsite of the Spanish was established on the western coast of the peninsula and was founded with the name of Salamanca de Xala; it was probably located 35 kilometers north. During the first decades of the same century, Muyil formed part a region controlled by Juan Bautista Vega, who commanded the Mayan tribes of the northeast zone of the Quintana Roo.