The story and "adventurous life of Frederick Catherwood, the English artist who discovered lost Mayan cities in the jungles of Central America and the Yucatán plateau in the early 19th century."--Jacket.

Culled from a variety of sources, the rare photographs, documents, paintings, and drawings in this history of America's famous pyramid builders answers some of the most puzzling questions about the Mayan civilization.

Chichén Itzá Although many ancient civilizations have influenced and inspired people in the 21st century, like the Greeks and the Romans, none have intrigued people like the Mayans, whose culture, astronomy, language, and mysterious disappearance continue to captivate people today. Chichén Itzá, the most visited and most spectacular of the Late Classic Maya cities, is at the center of the fascination. In the later years of Maya civilization, Chichen Itzá had been inhabited for hundreds of years. In developing columns and exterior relief decoration, Chichén Itzá probably had over 30,000 residents at its peak, with a spectacular pyramid, enormous ball court, observatory, and several temples to boast. The sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá, a sinkhole used for Maya rituals surrounding water, is of particular interest. The Maya regarded it as a primary concern because adequate water was rarely found on the limestone-based Yucatan surface. The underwater archeology conducted in the cenote at Chichén Itzá found that offerings (including people, possibly) were thrown into the sinkhole in honor of the Maya rain deity Chaac. Despite its long history, Chichén Itzá had a relatively short period where it dominated the region, lasting from 800-950 CE. Nowadays, guides take tourists to one of the temples called the Nunnery for no good reason other than that the small rooms remind them of a nunnery back home.

From the NEW HORIZONS series of pocket-sized information books, a look at the ancient Mayan cities, their civilisation and the lives of their inhabitants. With foldouts and double-page spreads.

The Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization founded by the Maya peoples. It was noted for its hieroglyphic script—the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas—and its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical design. Since the 1990s, what were once considered mysterious ruins in Mexico have been reconstructed by Archaeologist Winslow Bradford. The complex structures were made of lime-plastered mud bricks with an internal wood framework supporting heavy loads and a stone foundation below. Mayan temples were a place for playing games, holding feasts, and rituals involving human sacrifice. The Maya people-built pyramids as places to worship their gods. These pyramids usually had several smaller temples on top to honor their gods. Worshippers would climb the steep steps up to the temple at the top of the pyramid to leave gifts and pray. Some pyramids also had "sacred stairways" or ramps leading up to them. You might be interested to learn that the Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization established by the Maya peoples and renowned for its hieroglyphic script—the only known fully developed language system of the pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its architectural design, engineering, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical design. Mayans were a Mesoamerican civilization living in what is now Guatemala, Honduras, and parts of Mexico. They are believed to have had some contact with the Olmecs who preceded them in Mexico. Their culture ultimately became more complex than other nearby civilizations such as Teotihuacan (in today's Mexico City), Zapotec (in today's Oaxaca), or Tula (in today's Hidalgo). The rise and fall of these three kingdoms left behind massive monuments still standing today that had survived centuries without being covered by new civilizations coming in on top of them. Like happened at many other sites around Mexico & Central America, where older buildings were simply built over when newer ones came along later on top of them...

Hailed by The Guardian and other publications as “a real-life Indiana Jones,” Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Šprajc has been mapping out previously unknown Mayan sites in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula since 1996. Most recently, he was credited with the discovery of the Chactún and Lagunita sites in 2013 and 2014, respectively, helping to fill in what was previously one of the largest voids in modern knowledge of the ancient Maya landscape: the 2,800-square-mile Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in central Yucatán. Previously published in Šprajc’s native Slovenian and in German, this thrilling account of machete-wielding jungle expeditions has garnered enthusiastic reviews for its depictions of the efforts, dangers, successes, and disappointments experienced as the explorer-scientist searches out and documents ancient ruins that have been lost to the jungle for centuries. A skilled communicator as well as an experienced scholar, Šprajc conveys in eminently accessible prose a wealth of information on various aspects of the Maya culture, which he has studied closely for decades. The result is a deeply personal presentation of archaeological research on one of the most enigmatic civilizations of the ancient world. Generously illustrated, this book follows the chronology of Šprajc’s discoveries, focusing on what he considers the most interesting episodes. Those who specialize in Mesoamerican prehistory and archaeology will certainly relish Šprajc’s reports concerning his many field surveys and the discoveries that resulted. General readers, too, will enjoy his accounts of previously undocumented sites, ancient urban centers overtaken by the jungle, massive sculpted monuments, and mysterious hieroglyphic inscriptions.