Bakhalal

Bakhalal stands beside the narrow lagoon now known as Lake Bacalar, about forty kilometres north of Chetumal in the tropical flatlands of Quintana Roo. The name most likely comes from bʼak halal, meaning “surrounded by reeds,” a description tied to the water and marshy vegetation that define the site. In Maya tradition the city was founded in 415 CE as Sian Ka’an Bakhalal. Its position beside a long freshwater lagoon gave it a distinctive setting among the forests and seasonal lowlands of the Yucatán interior.

Spanish conquerors took and held Bakhalal during the Pacheco expedition in 1543. Two years later Gaspar Pacheco, assisted by Juan de la Cámara, established Salamanca de Bacalar on the site. The town became a seat of colonial administration for the southern part of what is now Quintana Roo, under the captain general of Yucatán at Mérida.

Bacalar's position also exposed it to attack. Pirates sacked the town in the seventeenth century, and the fortress of San Felipe was completed in 1729. Its construction reflects the importance of defending this outpost of Spanish authority on the eastern side of the Yucatán peninsula.