Ciudad del Carmen

Ciudad del Carmen is a city in the south west of the Campeche state of Mexico. Ciudad del Carmen is located at 18.63°N, 91.83°W, on the south west of Carmen Island in the Laguna de Terminos at the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In 2003 the population was estimated at 132,400 people.

The city is nicknamed "The Pearl of the Gulf". Ciudad del Carmen was a small city mostly devoted to fishing until the 1970s when oil was discovered in the region; since then it has grown and developed substantially. The city could long be reached only by ferry boats; this changed with the construction of a causeway bridge to the mainland in the 1980s.

This border area at the western edge of the Yucatán Peninsula was previously part of the state of Yucatán, then of Tabasco; since 1863 it has been part of the state of Campeche. In 1840 the city had a population of about 7,000.

The city is also the seat of the State of Campeche's Carmen muncipality, which includes the city and the surrounding area. In 1999 the population of the municipality of Carmen was 181,566 people.