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Ruinas El Rey, Isla Cancún, Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico. March 2017.

El Rey is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Mayan culture. The original name in the Mayan language is not known. In 1909, two English travelers Channing Arnold and Frederick Frost visited the site and found an anthropomorphic sculpture of what was interpreted as a monarch or a noble person. The name El Rey ("The King") comes from a sculpture that resembles a monarch, the head of which is preserved in Museo Maya.

The site reached its housing peak probably in the Early Classical Period (250-600 AD). The first settlers built houses on platforms, although the organic materials used have not been preserved over the centuries. Between the years 200 and 1200 AD. the inhabitants of the site worked as fishermen and in salt extraction.

In a later period the site gained importance because immigrants arrived from the interior of the Yucatán Peninsula, approximately between 1300-1500 AD. The structures that can currently be seen date from this Post-Classical Period.

After the arrival of the Spanish in the 16. century, the site was abandoned by the Mayans.

Source: Wikipedia.