History

The History of Isla Mujeres

The light from torches was shown through holes in the walls, which could be seen by navigators at sea. The Mayan to also came to the island to harvest salt from the salt lagoons.

In march of 1517, Francisco Hernández de Cãrdova discovered the island. When the Spanish expedition landed, they found many female shaped idols representing the goddess Ixchel, that Isla Mujeres got its name.

"During lent of 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdova sailed from Cuba with three ships to procure slaves for the mines... (other says he sailed to discover new lands). He landed on the Isla de las Mujeres, to which he gave this name because the idols he found there of the goddess of the country, "Ixchel" and her daughters and daughter-in-lawƒs "Ixchebeliax", "Ixhunie", "Ixhunieta", only vestured from the girdled down and having the breast uncovered after the manner of the Indians.

"The building was of stone, such as to astonished them and they found certain objects of gold which they took. Except from Yucatan, before and after the Conquest".

- Written in 1566 by Friar Diego de Landa.

For the next three centuries Isla Mujeres was uninhabited. The only visitor were fisherman and pirates who used Isla Mujeres as a refuge and left their women on the island "for safekeeping" while they sailed the high seas.

Famous pirates like Henry Morgan and Jean Lafitte walked the shores of Isla and as legend goes, buried their stolen treasure under the white sands.

After the Independence of Mexico, a small village began in what is now downtown Isla Mujeres. During the wars many Mayans took refuge on Cozumel, Holbox and Isla Mujeres. Mayan fisherman found the waters around the island to be a fisherman's paradise and the village slowly grew. In august of 1850, the governor of the state of Yucatan, Don Miguel Barbacano, named the village, Pueblo de Dolores.