Calotmul

Calotmul is the seat of a small municipality in eastern Yucatán, on Federal Highway 295 between Valladolid, 36 km to the south, and Tizimín, about 14 km to the north; a state road leads west to Espita, 13 km away, and the ruins of Ek Balam are about 22 km off. Mérida is roughly 170–195 km away depending on the route. The town had 2,584 people at the 2020 census, and the whole municipality, which also takes in the villages of Pocoboch and Tahcabó, had 3,949. The Maya name is explained as 'two joined hills', from ka'a (two), loot (a counter for pairs) and múul (hill).

Calotmul existed before the conquest; scholars place it either in the Cupul province or under the Xiu, and the Spaniards treated it as a jurisdiction of its own. It became an encomienda village in the mid-16th century, with Rodrigo Álvarez as its first encomendero in 1549. A Franciscan house founded in 1612 looked after Tahcabó, Itzabcanul and Espita as visiting villages, and diocesan priests took over in 1680. For a long time the area depended on Tizimín, and it became a municipality of its own in the 20th century. Today the land is used mainly for cattle, forestry and farming, and local crafts include leatherwork, machine-embroidered huipiles and hemp hammocks.

The main sight is the parish church of the Immaculate Conception. A plaque on the façade says it was built in 1749, paid for by the parish priest Joseph Prudencio Domínguez, who also gave it a gilded high altarpiece. That wooden altarpiece, with two levels, six niches, estípite columns and an imperial crown on top, is covered in gold and silver leaf and counts among the finest in Yucatán. In its central niche stands the image of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, the town's patroness, from the late 16th century; the Jesuit Francisco de Florencia counted her among the most venerated images of the province. Her feast runs from 1 to 8 December. The municipality is said to have some 34 cenotes, among them Chakah, Chacal Has, Bal-Che, Baal-Kax and Actun-Dzonot.