56 Best Sights in Yucatán and Campeche States, Mexico

A historic mansion just south of Valladolid's central square contains Mexico's largest private collection of folk art. Rooms around the gracious courtyard contain some 3,000 pieces, with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) figures being a specialty. The selection is impressive, but even without it, the house would be worth touring. This hacienda-style building dates from the early 17th century, and the restoration was led by the same architect who designed Mérida's ultramodern Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (don't worry—the results here preserved its colonial elegance). Casa de los Venados opens to the public each morning for a 90-minute bilingual tour. Just show up; no reservations are needed. The suggested donation of MX$100 is a bargain, and all proceeds help fund local health-care projects.

Begun in 1561, Mérida's cathedral is one of the oldest on the North American mainland (an older one can be found in the Dominican Republic). It took several hundred Maya laborers, working with stones from the pyramids of the ravaged Maya city, 37 years to complete it. Designed in the somber Renaissance style by an architect who had worked on El Escorial in Madrid, its facade is stark and unadorned, with gunnery slits instead of windows and faintly Moorish spires.

Inside, the black Cristo de las Ampollas (Christ of the Blisters) occupies a side chapel to the left of the main altar. At 23 feet tall, it's the tallest Christ figure inside a Mexican church. The statue is a replica of the original, which was destroyed during the revolution in 1910 (also when the gold that once adorned the cathedral was carried off). According to one of many legends, the Christ figure burned all night and appeared the next morning unscathed—except for its namesake blisters. You can hear the pipe organ play at the 11 am Sunday Mass.

A major metropolis in its day, Edzná was situated at a crossroads between cities in modern-day Guatemala and the states of Chiapas and Yucatán, hence it features a mélange of Maya architectural elements. Roof combs and corbeled arches evoke those at Yaxchilán and Palenque, in Chiapas, and giant stone masks resemble the Petén-style architecture of southern Campeche and northern Guatemala.

Edzná began as a humble agricultural settlement around 300 BC, reaching its pinnacle in the Late-Classic period, between AD 600 and 900, then gradually waning in importance until being all but abandoned in the early 15th century. Today, soft breezes blow through groves of slender trees where brilliant orange and black birds spring from branch to branch. Clouds scuttle across a blue backdrop, perfectly framing the mossy remains of once-great structures.

One highlight is the five-story Pirámide de los Cinco Pisos, which was built on the raised platform of the Gran Acrópolis (Great Acropolis). Hieroglyphs carved into the vertical faces of the 15 steps between each level (some re-cemented in place by archaeologists, although not necessarily in the correct order), as well as into stelae throughout the site, depict the opulent attire once worn by the Maya ruling class—quetzal feathers, jade pectorals, and jaguar-skin skirts. On the pyramid's top level sit the ruins of three temples and a ritual steam bath.

The Pirámide de los Cinco Pisos was constructed so that on certain dates the setting sun would illuminate the mask of the creator-god, Itzamná, inside one of the pyramid's rooms. This still happens on May 1, 2, and 3, the beginning of the Maya planting season, and on August 7, 8, and 9, the days of harvesting and giving thanks. 

West of the Great Acropolis, the Puuc-style Plataforma de los Cuchillos (Platform of the Knives) was so named by the archaeological team that found a number of flint knives inside. To the south, four buildings surround a smaller structure called the Pequeña Acrópolis (Small Acropolis). Twin sun-god masks with huge protruding eyes, sharp teeth, and oversize tongues flank the Templo de los Mascarones (Temple of the Masks, or Building 414), adjacent to the acropolis. The mask at the bottom left (east) represents the rising sun; the mask to the right represents the setting sun.

If you're not driving, consider taking one of the inexpensive day trips offered by tour operators in Campeche. Convenience aside, a guide can point out features often missed by the untrained eye, such as the remains of arrow-straight sacbés. These raised roads in their day connected one important ceremonial building within the city to the next, and also linked Edzná to trading partners throughout the peninsula.

Encompassing some 1.8 million acres along the Guatemalan border, Calakmul was declared a protected biosphere reserve in 1989 and is the largest of its kind in Mexico (Sian Ka'an in Quintana Roo is second with 1.3 million acres). All kinds of flora and fauna thrive here, including wildcats, spider and howler monkeys, hundreds of exotic birds, orchid varieties, butterflies, and reptiles. There's no shortage of insects, either, so don't forget the bug repellent.

The reserve's centerpiece, however, is the Maya city that shares the name Calakmul (which translates as "two adjacent towers"). Although Carretera 186 runs right through the reserve, you'll need to drive about 1½ hours from the highway along a 60-km (37-mile) authorized entry road to get to the site. Structures here are still being excavated, but fortunately the dense surrounding jungle is being left in its natural state: as you walk among the ruined palaces and tumbled stelae, you'll hear the guttural calls of howler monkeys and see massive strangler figs enveloping equally massive trees.

Anthropologists estimate that in its heyday (between AD 542 and 695) the region was inhabited by more than 50,000 Maya. Archaeologists have mapped more than 6,800 structures and found 180 stelae. Perhaps the most monumental discovery thus far has been the remains of royal ruler Gran Garra de Jaguar (Great Jaguar Claw). His body was wrapped (but not embalmed) in a shroud of palm leaf, lime, and fine cloth, and locked away in a royal tomb in about AD 700. In an adjacent crypt, a young woman wearing fine jewelry and an elaborately painted wood-and-stucco headdress was entombed together with a child. Their identity remains a mystery. The artifacts and skeletal remains have been moved to the Museo de la Arqueología Maya in Campeche City.

You can explore the site along a short, medium, or long path, but all three eventually lead to magnificent Templo II and Templo VII—twin pyramids separated by an immense plaza. Templo II, at 175 feet, is the peninsula's tallest Maya building. Scientists are studying a huge, intact stucco frieze deep within this structure, so it's not currently open to visitors.

Arrangements for an English-speaking tour guide should be made beforehand with Servidores Turísticos Calakmul, Río Bec Dreams, or through Chicanná Ecovillage near Xpujil. Camping is permitted at Km 6 with the Servidores Turistícos Calakmul after paying caretakers at the entrance gate. You can set up camp near the second checkpoint. Even if day-tripping, though, you'll need to bring your own food and water, as the only place to buy a snack is near the second entrance inside the museum. In addition to separate fees to enter the reserve and the archaeological site, you'll also pay MX$42 per person and MX$70 per vehicle to access the first 20 km (12½ miles) of road into the reserve, which runs through private land.

Experts estimate that Aké was populated between AD 250 and 900; today many people in the area have Aké as a surname. The city seems to have been related to the very important and powerful one at present-day Izamal. In fact, the two cities were once connected by a sacbé (white road) 13 meters (43 feet) wide and 33 km (20 miles) long. All that has been excavated so far are two pyramids, one with rows of columns (35 total) at the top, reminiscent of the Toltec columns at Tula, north of Mexico City.

Nearby, workers process sisal in a rusty-looking factory, which was built in the early 20th century. To the right of this dilapidated building are the ruins of the Hacienda and Iglesia de San Lorenzo Aké, both constructed of stones taken from Maya buildings.

The largest of the city's bastions contains the Museo de Arquitectura Maya with artifacts from several Campeche State Mayan sites. The bastion was originally built to protect the Puerta de Mar, a sea gate that served as one of four original entrances to the city. Because it uses no supporting walls, it resembles a Roman triumphal arch. Its relatively complete parapets and embrasures afford views of the cathedral, municipal buildings, and old houses along Calle 8.

This bastion, where Calle 8 curves around and becomes Circuito Baluartes, houses the Museo de la Ciudad with a small collection of artifacts, including several Spanish suits of armor and a beautifully inscribed silver scepter. Captured pirates were once jailed in the stifling basement dungeon. The unshaded rooftop provides an ocean view that's lovely at sunset.

Built in 1686 to protect the city from pirate attacks, this bastion flanked by watchtowers now houses one of the city's few worthwhile handicraft shops. The collection is small but of high quality, and prices are reasonable. On the roof are well-preserved corner watchtowers. You can also check out (but not use) the original 17th-century toilet.

The last of the bastions to be built has been transformed into the Xmuch-Haltún Botanical Gardens with more than 200 plant species, including the enormous ceiba tree, which had spiritual importance to the Maya, symbolizing a link between heaven, Earth, and the underworld. The original bastion, erected in 1704, was demolished at the turn of the 20th century, then rebuilt in the 1950s.

An interesting feature here is the defensive moat—unusual in ancient Maya cities—though barely evident today. Seven gateways, once the only entrances to the guarded city, may have clued archaeologists to its presence. Most of the site's many buildings date from between about AD 600 and 1000, but since there are no traditionally inscribed stelae listing details of royal births, deaths, battles, and ascendancies to the throne, archaeologists have had to do a lot of guessing about what transpired here.

Duck into Estructura VIII, where underground passages lead to small rooms and a concealed staircase that reaches the top of the temple. One of several buildings surrounding a central plaza, this structure has lateral towers and a giant zoomorphic mask on its central facade. It was used for religious rituals, including bloodletting rites during which the elite pierced earlobes and genitals, among other sensitive body parts, in order to present their blood to the gods.

One of the city's earliest colonial homes now serves as a cultural center. Its fully restored rooms are furnished with period antiques and a few well-chosen reproductions; original frescoes at the tops of the walls remain, and you can see patches of the painted "wallpaper" that once covered the walls, serving to simulate European trends in an environment where real wallpaper wouldn't adhere due to the humidity. There is a small coffee shop on-site, plus a gift shop selling products from Campeche. The Moorish courtyard is occasionally used as a space for exhibits and lectures. Activities occur here several evenings a week. Vivo Recuerdo, a musical/theater interpretation of Campeche's history, is presented Thursday through Sunday; Con Sabor a Chocolate, a chocolate-making demonstration, takes place on Friday and Saturday.

It took two centuries (from 1650 to 1850) to finish this cathedral, and, as a result, it incorporates both neoclassical and Renaissance elements. On the simple limestone exterior, sculptures of saints in niches are covered in black netting to discourage pigeons from unintentional desecration. The church's neoclassical interior is also somewhat plain and sparse. The high point of its collection, now housed in the side chapel museum, is a magnificent Holy Sepulchre carved from ebony and decorated with stamped silver angels, flowers, and decorative curlicues. Each angel holds a symbol of the Stations of the Cross.

When you’ve exhausted your interest in archaeology—or are just plain exhausted—Cenote Ik Kil (meaning "place of the winds") offers a refreshing change of pace. Located across from the Doralba Inn in Pisté, this is an especially photogenic cenote to swim in. Lockers, changing facilities, showers, and life jackets are available.

Perhaps the most photographed cenote in the Yucatán, this sinkhole is across the road from another one, Cenote X-Keken, about 5 km (3 miles) west of the main square. A narrow stairway leads to crystal clear water where tree vines dangle overhead and hundreds of birds nest between the stalactites. Don't be alarmed by the tiny Garra rufa fish that nibble at your feet—they are actually eating away the dead skin cells. Guides offer tours for tips.

Five kilometers (3 miles) west of the main square, you can swim with the catfish in a lovely, mysterious cave illuminated by a small natural skylight. There are toilets and changing facilities but no lockers. Directly across the street is the equally stunning Cenote Samulá. Guides offer tours for tips.

A large, round, and beautiful sinkhole right in town, Cenote Zací—zací means "white hawk" in the Mayan language—is sometimes crowded with tourists and local boys clowning it up; at other times, it's deserted. Leaves from the tall old trees surrounding the sinkhole float on the surface, but the water itself is quite clean. If you're not up for a dip, visit the adjacent handicraft shop or have a bite at the popular, thatched-roof restaurant overlooking the water.  We recommend paying the extra MX$30 to rent a life vest here.

Referred to as simply the "Olimpo," this beautiful porticoed cultural center was built adjacent to city hall in late 1999. Its marble interior hosts international art exhibits, classical-music concerts, conferences, and theater and dance performances. The adjoining 1950s-style movie house shows both classic art films and animated features targeting younger viewers. The center also houses a planetarium with 60-minute shows explaining the solar system (narration is in Spanish); they run Tuesday through Sunday at 6 pm and Sunday at 10, 11, noon, 6, and 7—be sure to arrive 15 minutes early as nobody is allowed to sneak in once the show has begun.

Of the four buildings surrounding the main plaza at Chicanná, Estructura II, on the east side, is the most impressive. On its intricate facade are well-preserved sculpted reliefs and faces with long twisted noses—symbols of Chaac. In typical Chenes style, the doorway is zoomorphic, representing the mouth of the creator-god Itzamná. Surrounding the opening are large crossed eyes, fierce fangs, and earrings to complete the stone mask, which still bears traces of blue and red pigments.

Located on a cacao plantation near the Uxmal ruins, this museum highlights the history of cacao and cocoa (the product derived from cacao) and their relationship with Maya culture. Tours take place in traditional homes where you can learn about the cultivation of cacao and the process of making chocolate. At the end, you'll be treated to a traditional Maya drink, prepared with organic cocoa and local spices.

Located on a cacao plantation near the Uxmal ruins, this museum highlights the history of cacao and cocoa (the product derived from cacao) and their relationship with Maya culture. Tours take place in traditional homes where you can learn about the cultivation of cacao and the process of making chocolate. At the end, you'll be treated to a traditional Maya drink, prepared with organic cocoa and local spices.

More than 16 square km (6 square miles) of land here is cluttered with mounds, platforms, piles of rubble, plazas, and stelae. Although only a few buildings have been excavated, historians find Dzibilchaltún fascinating because of the sculpture and ceramics from all periods of Maya civilization that have been unearthed here. The area may have been settled as early as 500 BC and was inhabited until the time the Spanish arrived. At its height, there were around 40,000 people living here.

The most notable structure is the tiny Templo de las Siete Muñecas (Temple of the Seven Dolls). It's a long stroll down a flat dirt track lined with flowering bushes and trees to get to the low, trapezoidal temple that is an elegant example of the late Preclassic Period style. During the spring and fall equinoxes, sunbeams fall at the exact center of two windows opposite each other inside one of the temple rooms. A similar phenomenon happens during the full moon that occurs between March 20 and April 20.

Another attraction is the ruined open chapel built by the Spaniards for the indigenous people. Actually, to be accurate, the Spanish forced indigenous laborers to build it for themselves, in a sort of pre-Hispanic "separate but equal" scenario.

One of the best reasons to visit Dzibilchaltún, though, is Xlacah Cenote. The site's sinkhole, with crystalline water the color of smoked green glass, is ideal for a cooling swim after walking around the ruins. Before leaving, visit the small but impressive Museo Pueblo Maya, which contains the seven crude dolls that gave the Temple of the Seven Dolls its name. It also traces the area's Hispanic history, and highlights contemporary crafts from the region.

The Maya site of Ek Balam is best known for the amazingly well-preserved stucco panels on the Templo de los Frisos. A giant mask crowns its summit, and its friezes contain wonderful carvings of figures often referred to as "angels" (because they have wings)—but which more likely represented nobles in ceremonial dress.

As is common with ancient Maya structures, this temple, styled like those in the lowland region of Chenes, is superimposed upon earlier ones. The temple was a mausoleum for ruler Ukin Kan Lek Tok, who was buried with priceless funerary objects, including perforated seashells, jade, mother-of-pearl pendants, and small bone masks with movable jaws. At the bases at either end of the temple, the leader’s name is inscribed on the forked tongue of a carved serpent. (Maya culture ascribed no negative connotation to the snake.) A contemporary of Uxmal and Cobá, the city may have been a satellite city to Chichén Itzá, which rose to power as Ek Balam waned.

This site is also notable for its two concentric walls—a rare configuration in the Maya world—that surround the 45 structures in the main sector. They may have provided defense or, perhaps, symbolized the ruling elite that lived within. In addition, Ek Balam has a ball court and many freestanding stelae (stone pillars carved with commemorative glyphs or images). New Age groups occasionally converge here for prayers and seminars, but the site usually has few visitors, which adds to its allure.

Facing the main plaza, the enormous 16th-century former monastery and church of St. Anthony of Padua is perched on—and built from—the remains of a Maya pyramid devoted to Itzamná, god of the heavens. The monastery's ocher-painted church, where Pope John Paul II led prayers in 1993, has a gigantic atrium (supposedly second in size only to the Vatican's) facing a colonnaded facade and rows of 75 white-trimmed arches. The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, to whom the church is dedicated, is the patron saint of the Yucatán. A statue of Nuestra Señora de Izamal, or Our Lady of Izamal, was brought here from Guatemala in 1562 by Bishop Diego de Landa. Miracles are ascribed to her, and a yearly pilgrimage takes place in her honor. Frescoes of saints at the front of the church, once plastered over, were rediscovered and refurbished in 1996.

The monastery and church are now illuminated in a light-and-sound show of the type common at some archaeological sites. You can catch a Spanish-only narration and the play of lights on the nearly 500-year-old structure at 8:30 every night but Sunday. Diagonally across from the cathedral, the small municipal market is worth a wander. It's the kind of place where if you stop to watch how the merchants prepare food, they may let you in on their cooking secrets.

Five long blocks away from the main plaza is the 16th-century, terra-cotta Ex-Convento e Iglesia San Bernardino, a Franciscan church and former monastery. The church was actually built over Cenote Sis-Há, which provided the monks with a clean water source. You can view the cenote through a grate in the well house, where much of the original stone still remains. If a priest is around, ask him to show you the 16th-century frescoes, protected behind curtains near the altarpiece. The lack of proportion in the human figures shows the initial clumsiness of indigenous artisans in reproducing the Christian saints.

The Jesuits built this fine baroque church in honor of St. Joseph just before they were booted out of the New World in 1767. Its block-long facade and portal are covered with blue-and-yellow Talavera tiles and crowned with seven narrow stone finials—resembling both the roof combs on many Mayan temples and the combs Spanish women once wore in their elaborate hairdos. You can ask the guard (who should be somewhere on the grounds) to let you in. From the outside you can admire Campeche's first lighthouse, built in 1864 and perched atop the right-hand tower.

Near the city's southwest end, Avenida Ruíz Cortínez winds to this hilltop fort with a breathtaking view of the Bay of Campeche. Built between 1779 and 1801 and dedicated to the archangel Michael, the fort was positioned to blast enemy ships with its long-range cannons. As soon as it was completed, pirates stopped attacking the city. In fact, the cannons were fired only once, in 1842, when General Santa Anna used Fuerte de San Miguel to put down a revolt by Yucatecan separatists.

The fort houses the 10-room Museo de la Arqueología Maya. Exhibits include the skeletons of long-ago Maya royals, complete with jewelry and pottery, which are arranged just as they were found in Calakmul tombs. Other archaeological treasures are funeral vessels, wonderfully expressive figurines and whistles from Isla de Jaina, stelae and stucco masks, and an excellent pottery collection. Most information is in Spanish only, but many of the pieces speak for themselves. The gift shop sells replicas of artifacts.

Whether or not the Grand Museum of the Mayan World lives up to its lofty name depends on your tastes and expectations, but the institution certainly makes a big architectural splash. The starkly modern building was designed to resemble a giant ceiba tree, sacred to the Maya, and it looms over the northern outskirts of town on the highway to Progreso. (Plan on a MX$150 Uber or DiDi ride from downtown.)

The museum's amazing collection of Maya artifacts are exhibited in four themed halls: The Mayab, Nature, and Culture; Ancestral Maya; Yesterday's Maya; and Today's Maya. Much of the space is given over to multimedia presentations, including interactive screens that are enormously popular, especially with younger visitors. One all-the-rage panel of screens, for instance, lets you tap in your birth date, convert it to the corresponding date on the Maya calendar, and email yourself your Maya horoscope. Everything here—artifact labeling and multimedia narration—is trilingual (Spanish, English, and Mayan). The adjoining Mayamax theater screens films, and there is an on-site concert hall, too.

Since work began at Hochob in the early 1980s, four temples and palaces have been excavated, including two that have been fully restored. Intricate and perfectly preserved geometric designs, typical of the Chenes style, cover the temple known as Estructura II.

The temple doorway represents the open mouth of Itzamná, the creator god, and above it the eyes bulge and fangs are bared on either side of the base. It takes a bit of imagination to see the structure as a mask, as, at one time, color no doubt originally enhanced the effect. Squinting helps a bit: the figure's "eyes" are said to be squinting as well. But anyone can appreciate the intense geometric relief carvings decorating the facades, including long cascades of Chaac masks along the sides. Evidence of roof combs can be seen atop the building.

Ask the guard to show you the natural and man-made chultunes (cisterns) that extend into the forest. They also indicate that these are Chenes ruins.

Hormiguero is Spanish for "anthill," referring both to the looters' tunnels that honeycombed these ruins when archaeologists discovered them and the number of enormous anthills in the area. The buildings here were constructed roughly between 400 BC and AD 1100 in the Río Bec style, with rounded lateral towers and ornamental stairways, the latter built to give an illusion of height, which they do wonderfully.

Note the intricately carved and well-preserved facade of the site's largest structure, Estructura II. Estructura V is also noteworthy owing to the Chaac masks arranged in a cascade atop a pyramid. Nearby is a perfectly round chultun (water-storage tank), and, seemingly emerging from the earth, the eerily etched designs of a still unexcavated structure.

This evocatively faded red church is typical of Yucatán's colonial sanctuaries. It has been ransacked on more than one occasion, but the Cristo Negro (Black Christ) altarpiece is original. The best view might be from the outside, where you can take in the facade and savor the slow pace of the town as families ride by in carts attached to bicycles and locals mill around in traditional Maya dress.