Quicknation    Mexico Campeche, Campeche

Images of Campeche, Campeche: G Y AOL AV MSN News of Campeche, Campeche: G Y Books of Campeche, Campeche: B

Campeche, Campeche is the name of both a state in Mexico and its capital city. This article is about the city. For the state, see Campeche. is a city of Mexico located at 19.85° N 90.53° W, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The city's population estimate for 2002 was 230,910 people.

The city was founded in 1540 by Spanish conquistadores as b. The Pre-Columbian city was described as having 3,000 houses and various monuments, of which little trace remains.

The city retains many of the old colonial Spanish city walls and fortifications which protected the city (not always successfully) from pirates and buccaneers. The state of preservation and quality of its architecture earned it the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. Originally, the Spaniards lived inside the walled city, while the natives lived in the surrounding i of San Francisco, Guadalupe and San Román. These barrios still retain their original churches; the one in Guadalupe is almost 500 years old.

Due to the constant attacks of both English and Dutch buccaneers and pirates such as Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Lauren Graff, Kornelius Jols, Jacobo Jackson, Henry Morgan, Lewis Scott and Rock Brasiliano for almost 160 years, in 1686 the government started to fortify the city. The French engineer Louis Bouchard de Becour was commissioned to unify all the protections that surrounded the city with a wall.

At its completion, the wall surrounding the city of Campeche was composed of 2,560 meters in length forming an irregular hexagon around the main part of the city, with eight defensive bastions on the corners, This b

It also contained four doors to allow access to the main quarters. The main doors are the i ("Sea Gate"). The Land Gate is kept as a tourist attraction, having a light and sound show three nights each week and keeping original supplies and items from the XVII century. The other doors where Guadalupe and San Román, connecting to the outside neighborhoods.

Additionally, two main forts protected the city from two nearby hills on each side, the forts of San José el Alto (built in 1762) and San Miguel. This forts gave long-range artillery coverage and served also as look-outs. They were built before the walls of the city. The fort of San Miguel is used as a museum and houses a collection of pre-hispanic items. The fort of San José houses a collection of boats and weapons of the period.

Campeche was the principal port of Yucatán until the mid-19th century, when it was overtaken by Sisal, and then Progreso. It was historically the second largest and most important city in the Peninsula (after Mérida) until the end of the 20th century and the increased development in Quintana Roo. In the 1840s the city had a population of about 21,000.

!-- Saved in