Sian Ka'an
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How it came to be
Sian Ka'an is a biosphere reserve on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Its name comes from the Maya language of the people who once lived here and means roughly the place where the sky begins. It became a reserve in 1986 and was inscribed in 1987.
Its land area of more than 400,000 hectares rises no higher than 10 m above sea level. Tropical forest, palm savanna, mangrove, lagoons, marsh and beaches cover it, about a third of it mangrove. There are hundreds of forest islands called petenes, and deep sinkholes, cenotes, hold creatures found nowhere else. The marine part of about 120,000 hectares takes in part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.
More than 100 mammal species have been recorded, among them jaguar, puma, Baird's tapir and manatee, along with about 330 species of birds. The reserve contains 23 known Maya sites, including Muyil, and remains of a narrow-gauge railway that ran from 1905 to 1932.
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