stephens

After several months of reading just a little bit at a time, I finally finished the remarkable work by John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán, which was originally published in 1841. Stephens journeyed to Central America, exploring and documenting ancient Mayan ruins. The copy I have is split into two books, Volume I and Volume II; the book can also be found online at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Incidents_of_Travel_in_Central_America,_Chiapas_and_Yucatan.

Stephens, of course, is considered to have been a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization. Besides the detailed descriptions of the Mayan ruins, his work provides the reader with a fascinating snapshot of life and conditions in that part of the world at about the middle of the 19th century.

After his first trip (1939-40), Stephens returned to the region in 1841 and wrote about that visit in Incidents of Travel in Yucatán, originally published in 1843 (I have yet to read this book).