New York Times Bestseller (Expeditions)
??Thrilling.??? A captivating history of two men who dramatically changed their contemporaries?? view of the past.?? ??Kirkus (starred review)
" adventure tale that make[s] Indiana Jones seem tame. ?Library Journal
In 1839 rumors of?extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the worlds most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwoodboth already celebrated for their adventures in Egypt the Holy Land Greece and Romesailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras Guatemala and Mexico. What they found would?upend the Wests understanding of human history.
In the tradition of Lost City of Z and In the Kingdom of Ice former San Francisco Chronicle journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist William Carlsen reveals the?remarkable story of the discovery of the ancient Maya. Enduring disease war and the torments of nature and terrain Stephens and Catherwood meticulously uncovered and documented the remains of an astonishing civilization that had flourished in the Americas at the same time as classic Greece and Rome?and had been its rival in art?? architecture?? and power. Their?masterful book about the experience?? written by Stephens and illustrated by Catherwood?? became a sensation?? hailed by Edgar Allan Poe as ??pe