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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic--Still Useful, July 17, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: An Archaeological Guide to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula (Paperback)
I have enjoyed this book and have used it on several trips to the Yucatan, but I must agree about the shortcomings mentioned by other reviewers. I consider the book a classic--at the time it was written, it provided much needed and hard-to-find information--which today is much more readily available in guidebooks. I find the book most useful in trip planning--especially in highlighting interesting, lesser-known sites to visit. (Also, do not overlook the excellent inexpensive pamphlets on various sites sold at the Anthropology Museum in Merida, as well as the free Yucatan Today guide which can be obtained at the Tourist Information Center in the Teatro Peon Contreras.)
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite as good as the reviews suggest, December 17, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: An Archaeological Guide to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula (Paperback)
This is a worthy and thoroughly researched book, but it has a number of weaknesses as a practical field guide. It is too large to fit in a pocket, making it inconvenient to carry when stumbling about in the humid mosquito-ridden Mayan jungle. The maps are not particularly good, and the text tends to offer little more than a description of what one can see with one's own eyes. What is needed is more explanation and less exposition, if one is to understand the significance of Mayan carvings and architecture. The introduction offers some insight into the meaning of such things, but not much. What, for instance, is the significance of the ever-present Mayan ball courts? What was the nature of the game being played? This book does not offer the answers, or at least not readily. The reader is expected to have a level of understanding and knowledge which makes it effectively unsuitable for the novice. At the larger sites such as Chichen-Itza I found (bizarrely) that the budget guide "Let's Go Mexico" was actually more informative than this volume. In addition, the rapid rate of depredation of Mayan sites (jungle growth, souvenir-hunters etc) means that the book definitely shows its age. I found some of the descriptions barely recognisable today (December 1998).
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a good read, April 17, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: An Archaeological Guide to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula (Paperback)
I think the book is wonderful. Having written that, what the other readers said of its failings are true, and it should not be taken literally when planning a trip. To show an example, a friend of mine did not realize that there is now a paved road to Calakmul and did not go there. The book also failed to mention that there was a hotel at the time of publication, the Mirador Maya. Now there is another, the Calakmul. Both are basic, but the area is not the wasteland one would expect from guide books.
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