Izamal: Mexico’s Yellow Jewel – A Pueblo Mágico of Three Cultures

A ceremonial Magical Town

Located just 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the city of Mérida, Izamal is a Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town) also known as the city “Of the 3 cultures”, a given title due to the fact that it concentrates a great prehispanic past, colonial constructions and a current life that has not overshadowed the legitimacy of this town painted in yellow and ocher.

In addition to Yucatán’s capital, it’s connected to important destinations such as Cancún and Campeche—it won’t take you more than three hours by car (250 km/155 miles), being practically in the middle of both. If you leave from Mexico city, it’s better to take a 1 hour and 45 minutes flight to the city of Merida.

This city also stands out for being the only inhabited ceremonial center, which adds one more reason to visit it.

A historic city

Another name given to Izamal is “La Ciudad de los Cerros” (The city of the hills), in memory of the pyramids that went unnoticed for years as they remained hidden under the brush. This, far from invading them, could preserve them and allowed many of them to be revealed in recent years.

If you thought that these were all names given to the city, it’s necessary to mention the one perhaps would be most notorious—“La Ciudad Amarilla” (The Yellow City). You’ll confirm this from any point you were—as if it were a sepia photograph, or an extension of the Pantone range, its buildings maintain a disruptive but fascinating aesthetic, like subtly demanding you keep on looking at them.