Product Description

In 1839 Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens climbed the steps of the Mayan pyramids of the lost city, Copan. This text reconstructs the two expeditions they made into Mayan territory, with historical and architectural annotations, and Catherwood's illustrations for Stephens travel diaries.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1663858 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

Review
Frederick Catherwood, architect, Egyptologist, artist, surveyor, railway builder and pioneer of mesoamerican archaeology, is best known for his meticulous illustrations in the books of lawyer James Stephens, including the classic true adventure Incidents in Yucatan. Travelling in 1839-40 the pair were the first foreigners to view the lost cities of the Maya, which had largely been reclaimed by jungle. Catherwood spent much of his youth drawing the monuments of Egypt and Palestine, a potentially lucrative activity in the years before photography, and was sceptical about the far-fetched theories held by many of his contemporaries about the origins of these mysterious jungle cities. His magnificent drawings and lithographs are reproduced here in full colour, ranging from close-ups of carvings to breathtakingly beautiful panoramic views. There are also dramatic pictures of Mayan workers stripping vegetation from long-forgotten pyramids. He was a self-effacing man, modest to a fault, and the facts of his sad and relatively short life have been assembled in the accompanying text, which also introduces the Mayan civilization. catherwood's work is an extraordinary and exciting record of the re-re-remergence of a lost civilzation. (Kirkus UK)