Mérida, city in southeastern Mexico, capital of Yucatán State, on a plain near Progreso. It has a 16th-century cathedral, and Maya ruins are nearby. Also here are the Autonomous University of Yucatán (1624) and the Technological Institute of Mérida (1961). Mérida occupies the site of a former Maya city and was founded by the Spanish in 1542. Population (1995) 649,770.
