Merida, the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatan, is over 450 years old and always worth visiting. It is a delightful combination of Spanish and indigenous heritage, an example of a province with its own character and identity, firmly rooted in the heartland of the maya land.

The city of Merida is in the north-west of the Yucatan Peninsula. The climate is warm sub-tropical with an average temperature in the city of 27ºC. The land is generally flat and extremely rock, there are no watercourses on the surface at all. Yucatan has a complex system of underwater rivers, so that fresh water wells are common, specially in may private homes, sa are underground deposits known as “Cenotes”.

In Merida, the cuisine mixex Mayan culinary traditions with European influence. The distinctive characteristics of food in Merida are the use of maize and hot Habanero chilli peppers in many dishes. As in the rest of the country, the official languaje is spanish; however almost 40% of the population speak Maya.

Merida’s Cathedral of St. Idelfonso is considered to be the oldest on the American mainland, and it was the first to be completed in Mexico during the 16th century. The Cathedral is built in an advanced and quite moderate Renaissance style, and is characterised by the monumental aspect of its towers. It has strong medieval influences.

Merida was founded over a over a mayan city T’ho. In the year 1526, Francisco de Montejo “El Adelantado”, a native of Salamanca in Spain, was granted the privilege of undertaking the conquest of Yucatan, an enterprise wich lasted seven years. Although his efforts did not bear fruit in his lifetime, his son Francisco de Montejo y Leon “The Jounger”, followed his father’s instructions to complete the founding of the city on 1542. he founded the new city naming it Merida for its similaarities to the Spanish city of the same name.

The city was Cultural Capital of America during the year 2000, and continues towards th fifth centenary of its story. The monument to motherland, build by the colombian sculptor Romulo Rozo, was the first to be erected in honor of the nationin Mexico and the American continent. The monumen is an example of neo-indigenist or neo Mayan style.