Cansahcab

Cansahcab is the seat of the municipality of the same name in north-central Yucatán, a town of 4,065 people in the 2020 census. It lies about 52 kilometers east of Mérida and 12 kilometers east of Motul, at only 6 meters above sea level, in the old henequen zone of the state. The Maya name is usually read as "the place of the four caves of white earth", from can (four) and sahcab (white earth).

Before the Spanish conquest the area belonged to the chieftainship of Ah Kin Chel. In colonial times it was held in encomienda: in 1700 doña Bantulia Sosa de Rivero had 250 Maya in her charge here. After independence, in 1825, Cansahcab was placed in the Partido de la Costa, governed from Izamal, and in 1913 it became a municipality of its own. The population grew from about 1,200 in 1900 to around 4,500 in the 1980s and has held near 4,000 since.

The town centers on the parish church of San Francisco de Asís and its former convent, built in the 17th century, facing a wide plaza; the chapel of the Santa Cruz is said to date from the same period. The municipality has six cenotes, the best known being Bohchen, Hu-Can-Ha and Popola, and about four kilometers west of town, past the cemetery toward the old hacienda Ukaha, is a spot called El Aerolito, described as a mineral spring with unusual fish, linked to two underground cenotes and close to Maya ruins. The town's biggest party comes in early September for the Virgen de la Natividad, with processions, jarana dancers, vaquerías, bullfights and a fair; Saint Francis follows on 4 October.