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Maya ruins of San Gervasio
The Maya are believed to have first settled Cozumel by the early part of the 1st millennium AD, and older Preclassic Olmec artifacts have been found on the island as well. The island was sacred to Ixchel, the Maya Moon Goddess of fertility.
In the Mayan culture, all women were required to travel to the island at least once to worship Ixchel. She was the wife of Itzamna, the supreme Mayan lord of the skies of the night and of the day. The women asked Ixchel for fertility and for a joyful motherhood. Archeologists continue to unearth small dolls once sacrificed in the fertility rituals.
A number of ruins can be found on the island, most from the Post-Classic period. The largest Maya ruins on the island were near the downtown area and have now been destroyed. Today, the largest remaining ruins are at San Gervasio, located approximately at the center of the island.
Benito Juarez Monument in Cozumel
The first Spanish expedition to visit Cozumel was led by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. In the following year, Hernán Cortés stopped by the island on his way to Veracruz. The Grijalva and Cortés expeditions were both received peacefully by the Maya of Cozumel (unlike their experiences on the mainland). Even after Cortés destroyed some of the Maya idols on Cozumel and replaced them with an image of the Virgin Mary, the native inhabitants of the island continued to help the Spanish re-supply their ships with food and water so they could continue their voyages. Gerónimo de Aguilar, a captive of the Mayans, was rescued at this time.
As many as 10,000 Maya lived on the island during the early 1500s, but in 1520, infected crew members of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition brought smallpox to the island, and by 1570, only 186 men and 172 women were left alive on Cozumel. In the ensuing years, Cozumel was often the target of attacks by pirates, and in 1650, many of the islanders were forcibly relocated to the mainland town of Xcan Boloná to avoid the buccaneers' predation. Later, in 1688, most of the rest of the island's population, as well as many of the settlements along the Quintana Roo coast, were evacuated inland to towns such as Chemax. In 1848, refugees escaping the tumult of the Caste War of Yucatán settled on the island, and in 1849 the town of San Miguel de Cozumel was officially recognized by the Mexican government.
In 1861, American President Abraham Lincoln ordered his Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, to meet with the Mexican chargé d'affaires Matias Romero to explore the possibility of purchasing the island of Cozumel for the purpose of relocating freed American slaves offshore. The idea was summarily dismissed by Mexican President Benito Juarez, and Juarez is still revered by the people of Cozumel because of this action. In 1862, Lincoln did manage to establish a short-lived colony of ex-slaves on Île à Vache off the coast of Haiti.
Cruise port in San Miguel de Cozumel; the ship pictured is the Celebrity Equinox.
Work on the original Cozumel airport began when the US needed a stopover to aid World War II planes. While it was able to handle jet aircraft and international flights, it was never a US military base. By 1944, it was only used for emergencies and by the Mexican military. Eventually, Transportes Aeros Mexicanos began using the airport for domestic flights. Cozumel International Airport was built in the late 1970s and expanded in 1999.
On December 18, 2000, 41-year-old British singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, died while holidaying there with her sons and her boyfriend musician, James Knight, when a powerboat fatally struck her.
Cozumel seen through the eye of Hurricane Wilma
The island was struck directly by two Category 4 hurricanes during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. In July, Hurricane Emily passed just south of Cozumel, exposing the island to the storm's intense inner core. It was the larger, stronger, slower-moving Hurricane Wilma that caused the most destruction when it hit the island in October. A category 5 hurricane with winds over 150 miles per hour, Wilma's eye passed directly over Cozumel.
The storm caused some damage to the underwater marine habitat. This included the coral reefs, which suffered particularly at the shallower dive sites, and the fish that inhabit the reefs.
Trees, power lines, and cell phone towers were blown down, cars over-turned, piers washed away, windows smashed, roads collapsed, and new rivers appeared.
