El Nayar is a municipality in the Mexican state of Nayarit. The population was 30,551 in 2005 in a total area of 5,100 km². The municipal seat of Jesús María had a population of 1,520 in 2005. El Nayar is the home of the Huichol, Cora, and the Tepehuán Indians have adapted El Nayar.

El Nayar is the largest municipality in territorial dimension in the state. Its area makes up 18.46% of the surface of the state. It is also the sparsely populated.

The name of the municipality is in honor of the tribal chief Cora Naye, Nayar, or Nayarit, caudillo, legislator, and king; defender of his tribe who successfully maintained the Huacica or Xécora kingdom. Nayarit was named leader of the Cora around the year 1500. During his reign, he was able to resist the Spanish incursions into the mountains and preserve his kingdom. When he died, his remains were preserved and venerated in a cave in the mountains.

The municipality of El Nayar is located in the northeastern portion of the state of Nayarit, between the extreme coordinates 21° 25 and 22° 40 latitude north and the meridian 103° 58' and 105° 03’ longitude west. In the north there are boundaries with the municipality of Acaponeta and the state of Durango; in the south with the municipalities of Tepic, Santa María del Oro and La Yesca; in the east with the states of Jalisco and Zacatecas and in the west with the municipalities of Santiago Ixcuintla, Acaponeta, Rosamorada and Ruíz. See map of state at and