It’s hard to imagine now, but Cancún didn’t exist 60 years ago.
Before the Hotel Zone, before the all-inclusive resorts, before spring break — this stretch of coastline was mostly jungle and small fishing communities.
In the late 1960s, the Mexican government selected the area as a development experiment. Using tourism models and foreign investment, they built Cancún from scratch.
It is one of the most successful planned tourism cities in modern history.
But building a city from nothing means erasing what came before.
The jungle was cleared.
Communities shifted.
Infrastructure arrived almost overnight.
Cancún is paradise by design.
But every designed city has a story beneath it.
And those stories matter if you plan to live here — not just visit.