Becan is a word of the yucatecan mayan language that means “Ravin or canyon formed by water, such a meaning points out clearly an important characteristic of the place. Becan is one of the few precolombian settlements in which still nowadays you can appreciate a defensive pit and a wall. Becan is clasified at an academic level, by some researchers, as being the regional capital of one of the most important architectural areas of the state of Campeche within the Bec river region.
The central part of Becan is surrounded by a ditch that, as an average, measures 16 m of width per 2.50 m of depth. Behind that cavity there exists a wall that in some sectors still has 3.60 m of height.

The perimeter of such a defensive system adopts the form of a half moon, with a length of 1890 m; inside it there are the main buildings of the old city.
The evidences of human settlement in Becan date from the year 600 before our era. Nevertheless, its rise happened between the years 600 and 1000 a.c.; afterwards a gradual demographic decline happened up until the disappearance of the site, that happened around the year 1450.
This was a mayan city that gathered the goods and services of a wide number of settlements during the VII and XI centuries. Its strategic location (almost in the middle of the base of the Yucatan´s peninsula) made easier the role of regional capital that it had by relating with the rivers and lagoons zone of the southwest of Campeche, as well as with the lands of the Chetumal´s Bay.