Mazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding municipality, for which the city serves as the municipal seat, is also called Mazatlán. It is located at 23°12'N 106°25'W, on the Pacific coast, just across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula.

Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning "place of the deer". The city was founded in the 1820s. By the mid-1800s, a large group of immigrants had arrived from Germany. These new citizens developed Mazatlán into a thriving commercial seaport, importing equipment for the nearby gold and silver mines. It served as the capital of Sinaloa from 1859 to 1873.

Mazatlán, with a population of 340,000 as of 2000, is the second-largest city in the state and Mexico's largest commercial port. It is also a popular tourist destination, its beaches lined with resort hotels. A car ferry plies its trade across the Gulf of California from Mazatlán to La Paz, Baja California Sur.

In 2005, Mazatlán hosted and won the "Serie del Caribe", which is an annual baseball tournament with teams from México, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic.

Every year, Carnival is celebrated during the week before Ash Wednesday. There are a lot of festivities, including the election of a Queen, parades, and balls. This is the third largest Mardi Gras in the world, behind the celebrations held in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans.

Early History: By late XVIII and early XIX centuries Mazatlan was a bunch of huts inhabited by indians occupied of fishing. But, according to Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars, french explorer, by 1828-1829 arrived to this port the spanish banker Machado, who stablisehd commercial relations with vessels coming to Mazatlan from far places such as Chili, Peru, US, Europe and China. That's the way the commerce headed by this spanish banker turned the bunch of huts into a small village that by 1836 was inhabited by 4000 to 5000 persons.

During the Mexican War, the american army took the city between 1847 and 1848; in order to avoid the shelling of the city the mexican army had abandoned it. On 1859 the port was bockaded by HMS Amethyst. On the morning of November 13, 1864, french men-of-war shot twelve times against the city but there was no dead; that's the way Mazatlan became part of the Mexican Empire under Maximiliano. On November 13, 1866, the mexican general Ramon Corona expelled the imperialists from Mazatlan. On 1868 William H. Bridge, captain of HMS Chanticleer threatened to shell the city after custom authorities seized to his general payer, Mr. Wallace, twenty three gold ounces. Ramón Corona simply ignored him.

Americans living on the east coast willing to become a gold digger in San Francisco used to sail from New York or anyother Atlantic port to mexican ports in the Gulf of Mexico. From these ports the future gold diggers horse ride for weeks to Mazatlan. Here they had to take another ship which after four to five weeks would take them to San Francisco.

The Lighthouse: It began to shine by mid 1879. The lamp had been handcrafted in Paris, France, and it was formed by a big oil lamp with mirrors to enhance the light. Since it was static, on the distance it was often mistaken as a star. By 1905 this lamp was changed to a revolving lamp.