<Tr> <Th> Coordinates </Th> <Td> 18 ° 50 ′ 42" N 89 ° 07 ′ 32" W ﻿ / ﻿ 18.84500 ° N 89.12556 ° W ﻿ / 18.84500; - 89.12556 Coordinates: 18 ° 50 ′ 42" N 89 ° 07 ′ 32" W ﻿ / ﻿ 18.84500 ° N 89.12556 ° W ﻿ / 18.84500; - 89.12556 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Adjacent bodies of water </Th> <Td> Gulf of Mexico </Td> </Tr> <P> The Yucatán Peninsula (/ ˌjuːkəˈtɑːn /; Spanish: Península de Yucatán), in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel . The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America . It is approximately 181,000 km (70,000 sq mi) in area, and is almost entirely composed of limestone . </P> <P> The proper derivation of the word Yucatán is widely debated . Hernán Cortés, in the first of his letters to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, claimed that the name Yucatán comes from a misunderstanding . In this telling, the first Spanish explorers asked what the area was called and the response they received, "Yucatan", was a Yucatec Maya word meaning "I don't understand what you're saying ." Others claim that the source of the name is the Nahuatl (Aztec) word Yocatlān, "place of richness ." </P>

Where is the yucatan peninsula located in mexico