The Mysterious Maya

by George E. Stuart, Gene S. Stuart, David Alan Harvey (Photographer)

All about the Mysterious Mayas

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography

199 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1977

Reviews

[Lore · Rating 3 out of 5]

great photos!

[Cal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid read. Second book on "Indians" and just feel it is a difficult topic because so little is truly known about them and a lot of projecting is needed. The author has clearly spent a huge amount of time in the area and is knowledgable. Amazed the resiliency of these people to remain as relevant as they are... relatively speaking. The story of the two boys who became the moon and the sun were very interesting and Im disappointed it only lasted for a page. Stories like that help give a look into how they viewed the world, in my eyes. Nothing overly stood out, quick read with a lot of photos.

[Trudy Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Archeologists tell the story of the Maya as revealed by those remaining and the awesome runs found throughout Central America. Disappointing as It does not have the substance one wishes for.

[Caleb Seay]

The Mysterious Maya written by: George E. Stuart is primarily about the history, and culture of past, and modern day Mayans. The book starts out by discussing current or old fines the author has visited, and as the book progresses he starts to talk about the Mayan kingdom, and its early beginnings and abrupt end in the mid 16th century. near the end of the book the author starts to talk about modern day Maya traditions and how they are now mixed with parts of Christianity, and how he and his family lived in a Mayan village for a time and witnessed several religious and sacred rituals performed by the natives.

This book follows the descriptive type of non fiction text structure, and i say this, because the book describes the history of the Mayan people with immense detail, and beautiful illustrations to accurately show the Mayan people in a historical and significant way. The book also displays accurate depictions, and descriptions of Mayan life in present, and past times as well which give the reader a better understanding of Mayan history, and culture.

I believe that this book was good for its time period but over the past 30 years many new discoveries have been made so some of this books info may be outdated or corrected, but besides that i thought that this book was a really good read, and i would recommend it to anyone who enjoys history, or who just wants to learn about Mayan history.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another gem in my history collection. I have this 1977 book, with its original jacket that I only paid .25 cents for (the sticker is still on the jacket) at a used book sale. Given the age of this book, the reader should keep in mind that some of the information therein is dated (considering new research since the time of publishing). Be that as it may, this book is filled with interesting tidbits of history, lore and some fabulous photographs of artifacts and sites.

[Kendra]

Section A-1, By National Geographic

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great illustrations. Much of the text is now considered "old Maya", i.e., proved wrong by breaking the maya language code and recent discoveries.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a narrative with some dialog thrown in than a textbook look at the history of the culture. It wasn't really what I was looking for but the photos were worth the price.

[pjr8888 · Rating 4 out of 5]

National Geographic Society

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough actual historical information for my tastes.