CancĂșn
CancĂșn, city and adjacent island resort area, Quintana Roo estado (state), southeastern Mexico. Ciudad CancĂșn (CancĂșn city) is located on the northeastern coast of the YucatĂĄn Peninsula, facing the Caribbean Sea. It is essentially a service town for the L-shaped resort area of Isla CancĂșn (CancĂșn Island), which is 13 miles (21 km) long by 0.25 mile (400 metres) wide. The CancĂșn Island resort area (also called the Zona Hotelera [âHotel Zoneâ]) is linked by a causeway to CancĂșn city. The island, with its skyscraper hotels and sprawling resorts, and the coastal area occupied by CancĂșn city have abundant white sand beaches, palm groves, and coral reefs. The warm, tropical climate has a short rainy season.
Originally settled by Maya Indians, the area was recorded as CancĂșne (Mayan: âVessel at the End of the Rainbowâ) in 1843 by the American explorer John Lloyd Stephens and the British explorer Frederick Catherwood in their classic work Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (1843). CancĂșn remained a small fishing-and-gathering settlement of about 100 Maya until 1970, when, after a three-year study of conditions by the Mexican government in association with private interests, the area was selected as a suitable site for an international holiday centre. A building boom in the 1980s transformed CancĂșn Island into a major resort for tourists from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.
Mexican tourism officials view CancĂșn as a successful model for planned economic and urban development, but critics question its location on an unstable barrier island in Mexicoâs hurricane zone and note that severe housing problems persist in the adjacent service town, where many tourist-industry workers still live in substandard conditions. CancĂșn is linked by highway to Puerto JuĂĄrez to the north (with ferry service to the tourist destination of Isla Mujeres), to Puerto Morelos to the south (with ferry service to the tourist destination of Cozumel Island), and to various Mayan sites, including Tulum to the south and ChichĂ©n ItzĂĄ 87 miles (140 km) to the west. An international airport is located 12 miles (19 km) south of the city on the mainland. Pop. (2010) 628,306; (2020) 888,797.
