El Rey is an archaeological site of the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

Mayan culture The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and Glyph, glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Americas. It is also ...

, located in the southeast of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, in the tourist resort of Cancun, in the state of

Quintana Roo Quintana Roo ( , ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo), is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 11 mu ...

Geography

The El Rey site is located on the Mexican coast of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, in the hotel zone of the island of Cancun. The island is located on the outskirts of the city centre and is connected by two bridges to the mainland. The original name in the

Mayan language Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

is not known. In 1909 two English travelers Channing Arnold and Frederick Frost visited the site and found an anthropomorphic sculpture of what was interpreted as a monarch or a noble person. The name El Rey ("the king") comes from a sculpture that resembles a monarch, the head of which is preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Cancun.

History

The site reached its housing peak probably in the early classical period (250-600 AD). The first settlers built houses on platforms, although the organic materials used have not been preserved over the centuries. Between the years 200 and 1200 AD. the inhabitants of the site worked as fishermen and in salt extraction. In a later period the site gained importance because immigrants arrived from the interior of the Yucatan Peninsula, approximately between 1300 and 1500 AD. The structures that can currently be seen date from then. Within the coastal commercial network El Rey was one of the ports on the Caribbean coast. Other important ports in the south were

Xcaret Xcaret () is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. The site was occupied by the pre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation an ...

Xelha Xelha (, Spanish: Xelhá; sometimes pronounced "chel-ha"; Yucatec Maya: Xel-Há) is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located on the eastern coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the present- ...

Tulum Tulum (, yua, Tulu'um) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The ruins are situated on cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Carib ...

, and

Muyil Muyil (also known as Chunyaxché) was one of the earliest and longest inhabited ancient Maya sites on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is located approximately south of the coastal site of Tulum, in the Municipality of Felipe Carr ...

. After the arrival of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, the site was abandoned by the Mayans.

Archaeology

El Rey is the most important archaeological site on the island of Cancun. It is made up of 47 structures of varying functions. Archaeologists have found remains of mural paintings and drawings dating from the post-classical period. During the excavation of a temple in 1975, archaeologists found the burial site of a person of high rank, with a copper axe, a bracelet, and ornaments of shell and bone.

References

{{coord, 21.0611, -86.7815, format=dms, type:landmark_region:MX, display=title Maya sites in Yucatán Maya Classic Period Former populated places in Mexico 16th-century disestablishments in the Maya civilization 16th-century disestablishments in Mexico Tourist attractions in Yucatán Maya sites that survived the end of the Classic Period