The Mayas: The Splendor of a Great Culture

by Mario Perez Campa

This work explains and describes in detail the different facets of this great culture, from the different offices and rank of Maya society, its political organization and economy to the organization of its magnificent, spectacular cities richly decorated with painting and sculptures, plus a section on one of the most complex writing, number and calendar systems of the ancient world and an intricate religion that permeated practically all aspects of existence. Each chapter contains appropriate illustrations accompanied by explanatory texts. The book ends with an overview of the most important chroniclers, explorers, investigators and archaeologists who have studied this civilization.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Paperback

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what you would expect from a history text. Very interesting!

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a very dry book. No narrative at all. It talks forever about classifications and has phrases like "you can admire the stella B at the tomb 54" at some unpronounceable location in the jungles. There are some pictures, but certainly not for every numbered building or column the book mentions. Huge number of typos. But that's apparently the translator's fault, the book was originally published in Spanish.
Still it is OK. Especially if you read it while visiting Yucatan and have no other books around.
I did learn the basics of Mayan calendar and numeric system from it, which was fun. Just beware that everything interesting is mostly at the end, the first couple of chapters can be skipped completely (unless you really-really want to know what classification systems for Mayas the scientists do not use anymore or what animals live in the jungles).

[Alejandro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este es un libro con mucha información. Puede ser pesado de leer pues no incluye absolutamente nada de narración, se limita a la recopilación de hechos y descubrimientos que han arrojado las investigaciones de los últimos años en torno a los mayas. Lo recomiendo solamente si el lector es un verdadero adepto a la historia, de lo contrario puede tornarse bastante aburrido.