Temax

Temax is a town of about 6,500 people (6,472 in the 2020 census) in north-central Yucatán and the seat of the municipality of the same name. It lies about 74 km east-northeast of Mérida in a straight line, on the road that runs from Motul and Cansahcab towards Buctzotz, roughly 16 km west of Buctzotz and 26 km north-northeast of Izamal. The name is usually translated from Maya as "place of monkeys", from max or maax, monkey; the reading appears as early as an 1897 gazetteer.

Before the conquest the area belonged to the Maya chiefdom of Ah Kin Chel. In colonial times Temax was an encomienda, and from 1825 it was a pueblo of the Partido de la Costa, governed from Izamal. It was named a villa in 1867 and a city in 1914, then reverted to pueblo status in 1922; the free municipality dates from 1921. Temax was the easternmost municipality of Yucatán's henequen zone, and for generations its economy turned on the agave and the haciendas around it, among them Chenché de las Torres, San Antonio Cámara and Chucmichén. After henequen declined, farmers moved to maize, beans, vegetables and chiles, with some small-scale cattle and pig raising.

The main reason to stop is architecture. The parish and former convent of San Miguel Arcángel, from the 17th century, with two bell towers, faces the main square and its arcaded municipal palace. Around town are four smaller 18th-century chapels: San José, Santa Bárbara, San Román and the Ermita, a simple yellow chapel on the edge of town. On the square, one old concrete bench still advertises Sidra Pino and is dated 1956. Sewing traditional clothing is the town's main craft.

The biggest event is the January fiesta of the Virgen de la Purísima Concepción, whose image is brought over from neighbouring Buctzotz for the occasion. The celebrations open on a Thursday with a vaquería and continue through the weekend with processions and gremios; sources put it on the third weekend or the last Sunday of January.