Kaan peech

Kaan Peech belongs to the Maya coastal region of Ah-Kim-Pech, where the Spanish town of Campeche was later established. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba's expedition reached this coast in 1517. In 1540 Francisco de Montejo the Younger founded San Francisco de Campeche, following dealings and alliances with local Maya chiefs as the conquest of the peninsula advanced.

The settlement became a port connecting Yucatán with Havana, Veracruz and Spain. Its role as an outlet for the peninsula's resources also exposed it to repeated attacks by pirates and privateers. An expanded defensive enclosure was begun in 1686 and completed in 1704, incorporating eight bastions and four gates. Streets followed a grid around a principal square facing the sea, with government and religious buildings defining its public centre. The transition from Maya coastal territory to colonial port thus involved both a change in political authority and a physical transformation shaped by maritime commerce and defence.