Customer Reviews

A Guide to Ancient Maya Ruins

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You will feel like a guide if you carry this book with you through the ruins. An excellent text for teaching the reader about the ruins to be visited. Does not make many allowances for the armchair traveler. You should buy and bring this book with you, it can be used to help plan a trip, but the enjoyment is having the information at hand and in detail in the field. Substantial number of black and white photos, drawings, maps, and color plates.

I'm writing this based on my original 1986 copy. I've recommended this book to literally hundreds of people. Always with the... if you can find it. Had no idea it was still in publication. This isn't an extreme technical publication in that it doesn't go into the reason for every detail of carving. It also misses out on some to the recent discoveries that have changed and clarified certain views of the Mayan world. But I find it great in that the author reaches out to touch the reader so he can relate to an otherwise alien culture. In particular is the author's obvious love of art and architecture. As mentioned, take this book with you. It makes a nice bridge between what you see and what it must have been like at the height of the Mayan civilization. I've been to virtually every site in the book. Some I first visited before I had it. I've since gone back and the book certainly added to my understanding. It's a great jumping off point to even more study.