Isla Mujeres History

   In 2014, while excavating under the old monkey cage at the Mundaca Hacienda, the foundation of a Mayan temple to Ixchel was discovered. During the construction of  walls and pathways around the former Hacienda, they also found an abundance of Mayan relics, which were mostly religious offerings, as well as some human skeletons, and eight underground cisterns built by the Maya to ensure that worshipers didn't go thirsty. Mundaca's Hacienda covered about 40% of the island in the mid 1800's, and stones from the Mayan structures were used in its construction, according to Isla Mujeres historian, Fidel Villanueva Madrid. Foundation of temple to the Mayan goddess Ixchel, located inside the Mundaca Hacienda. Photo from Diario de Q Roo, Larry Parra, May 14, 2014 .      The caption for this video says that the Mundaca Hacienda dates back to 1860, when its creator, the pirate and slave trader Fermin Mundaca Marechaga, took refuge in Isla Mujeres from the Bri...

    Isla Mujeres was still a relatively young community in 1876, when archeologist Augustus le Plongeon lived here briefly with his young wife, Alice. The town of Dolores had been established twenty-six years earlier, by ~50 families fleeing the Caste War. In the early 1800's, the isle had been a temporary base for pirates & fishermen, without permanent settlements.      He described downtown as consisting of ~500 thatch huts ( ? that number sounds high, maybe a typo for 50? About 50 families founded the town in 1850. ), sitting in a grove of palm trees, with three sandy streets running north & south, with the main one ending at the cemetery. He said there were only about a dozen more substantial homes, made from stone and mortar, but these were also thatched with palmetto leaves. The houses were separated by courtyards, and some families proudly grew rose bushes & other flowering shrubs in the sandy soil.    ...