Caucel

Caucel is a comisaría of Mérida municipality, about 9 km west of the centre of the city, on the old road from Mérida to Sisal. Its Maya name is usually translated as "place of grinding stones" and pronounced Caukel, though other readings exist, including "two months of cold". The old village core has been surrounded by one of Mérida's biggest housing developments: in 2004 the state government launched a project to build homes close to the capital, and the area now known as Ciudad Caucel has around 15,000 houses and works as a satellite city of Mérida.

The old centre survives around a broad square. Its landmark is the Templo de Belem, a tall, plain old church with a stepped belfry topped by small pinnacles, listed among Mexico's catalogued historic monuments. On the same square stand the arcaded casa comisarial, the seat of local authority, with a clock above its arches, and a small market building. Near the centre is a stone leguario, a road marker that counted the leagues on the old road to Sisal; the one in Caucel marks two and a half leagues. Several low mounds of rubble around the village are the remains of Maya platforms.

Caucel keeps its village festivities despite the suburbs around it. For Day of the Dead the City of Mérida has organised a Paseo de las Ánimas from the cemetery to the comisaría building, with altars and a performance by a folk ballet.