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Mérida

Mérida, with a metropolitan population of 973 thousand1 and just under that (970 thousand) in the city proper,2 is located within the bounds of the Chicxulub Crater in northwestern Yucatán state, México, about 35 kilometers inland. In post-classical pre-Columbian times the city was called Th'ó (sometimes spelled Tiho). Mérida was built on the site when España (Spain) conquered the area, though it remained small until the late 19th century when henequén exports brought it back to local importance.

As of the spring of 2016, the tallest building is the Hyatt Regency Mérida (256 feet). Other notable buildings are the pink and white Palacio Municipal (started in 1734, completed in 1825), the Palacio de Gobierno (that is, the state governor's office, completed in 1892) and the Catedral de (cathedral of) Mérida (completed in 1598).3

The city is served by the Manuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport, one of the nation's busiest.4

YearPopulationPolitical entity
900 CE40,0005T'hó city entity6
1700 CE23,0007Monarchia hispanica (Spanish Empire)
1800 CE28,0005Reino de España (Spanish Empire)
1900 CE43,0005México
2010 CE973,0001México

External references

View from the Hyatt Regency Mérida, Mérida, Yucatán state, México

Historical maps

map showing Yucatán state, México, 900 CE

map showing Yucatán state, México, 1000-1100 CE

map showing Yucatán state, México, 1200-1400 CE

map showing Yucatán state, México, 1500 CE

map showing Yucatán state, México, 1600-1700 CE

map showing Yucatán state, México, 1800 CE

map showing Yucatán state, México, 1900-2000 CE

map showing southeastern Belize and México, 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. 2010 figure from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_areas_of_Mexico, accessed August 12, 2015.
2. 2010 figure from the side banner of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida,_Yucat%C3%A1n, accessed August 12, 2015.
3. Emporis.com, accessed May 19, 2016.
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Mexico, accessed August, 2015, table: 50 Busiest Airports by Passenger Traffice since 2010. My selection criteria for calling it one of the busiests was a minimum of one million passengers on that table.
5. Tables of the Worlds Largest Cities, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987). In 900 it was the largest city in southeastern México.
6. I do not know the name of the Mayan political entity. It was likely to have been a city state.
7. Chandler, op. cit., Continental Tables and Maps: The Americas.