Isla Mujeres Mexico - Island of Women
Isla Mujeres is a small island just a short distance off the northeast coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea about 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) northeast of Cancun.
Long before tourists arrived on Isla Mujeres, it was a sacred site for the Mayan people. In fact, it was never used for Mayan settlements, but rather considered a sanctuary where a temple was built to honor the Mayan goddess, Ixchel.
With relatively close proximity to the Yucatan Peninsula mainland, the Mayan found it convenient to mine the salt found in the interior lagoons, and they used that salt as currency, as well as for food preservation.
When the Spanish arrived here in the 16th century they named it Isla Mujeres, Spanish for "Women Island," because of the many cult images of goddesses they found here.
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