Bacalar town (Yucatec Maya: b'ak halal meaning surrounded by reeds) was a Maya city in Pre-Columbian times. It was the first city of the south Yucatan which the Spanish conquered in 1543, and from which they administered the southern half of Quintana Roo. After the town was sacked by pirates in the 17th century, the Fortress de San Felipe Bacalar was built by the Spanish in 1729. In 1848 the Chan Santa Cruz Maya conquered the town and it was only retaken by Mexico in 1902. The surrounding lagoon connects through to the the Chetunmal bay and is the catchment with the south Ycantan pantanal. The Bacalar lagoon also has some extraordinary stromatolites which are the most ancient records of life on Earth by fossils that date more than 3.5 billion years ago. See also the above ground
gallery.
