The principal Maya city on the island of Cozumel, founded 17 centuries ago, it was part of the intense trade and political network of Chichen Itza. The housing and religious complexes explored to date, together with the altars and pyramids, testify to its importance.
The chronicler Diego López de Cogolludo and the Chilam Balam of Chumayel mention various Mayan settlements on the island at the time the Spanish arrived. One such well-known place or neighborhood was Tantum or Tantun. However it is not known for sure whether it was one and the same as the ancient pre-Hispanic city we know today as San Gervasio.
Archeological work carried out on the site since the 1970s has enabled it to be dated to around the year 300. A rapid process of growth began nearly 300 years later, marked by the appearance of both perishable and higher quality buildings, and by the possible strengthening of ties with the coastal sites of the north coast of Quintana Roo.
San Gervasio seems to have grown significantly after 1000, and the fact that it flourished from 1200 up to the arrival of the Spanish may have been influenced by the rise of Chichen Itza as the great political and economic center of the peninsula. The settlement became the largest on the island during this final period, which saw the construction of the majority of the buildings visible today. At the same time a network of lesser towns emerged, possibly related to San Gervasio, and located across the whole island. Cozumel was densely populated when the Spanish arrived, and it played a key role in the first stage of the conquest.
It receives its name from the impressions of human hands that are preserved on the interior walls of the main building, built in the East Coast style during the Late Postclassic period (1250-1550).
It is so called in allusion to the huge and beautiful tree that has grown next to it.
At the northwest end of the El Álamo complex there is an isolated arch that marks the beginning of sacbé 1, and that at some time must have also indicated the entrance to the main sector of the archaeological zone.
Its route begins at El Arco, located at the northwest end of the El Álamo complex, and reaches another complex known as Nohoch Nah (Great House).
Postclassic temple built on a small base with two access stairways, in which some fragments of mural painting are still preserved.
So named because of the large number of these flying mammals that at one time, due to the absence of humans, inhabited the interior of its main building.
It is integrated by a base of several staggered bodies, on which a temple with two small chambers is preserved.
