John Lloyd Stephens · 1843 · overland

John Lloyd Stephens's 1843 account of his second expedition through the Yucatan with the English artist Frederick Catherwood, visiting more than forty ruined Maya cities. Their books, illustrated with Catherwood's meticulous engravings, revealed to a disbelieving world that the jungles of Central America held the remains of a great lost civilisation, and effectively founded the study of Maya archaeology. The route shown is a representative thread through the major sites.

1. 1
   Merida

   The American traveller Stephens and the artist Catherwood make the colonial city of Merida their base for a survey of the ruined Maya world.

2. 2
   Uxmal

   To the great Puuc city of Uxmal, its palaces and pyramids drowned in jungle, which Catherwood draws with astonishing precision.

3. 3
   Kabah

   Through the bush to Kabah and its long wall of carved stone masks, one of dozens of lost cities they map across the peninsula.

4. 4
   Mayapan

   The fallen walled capital of Mayapan, once the seat of a Maya league, now silent stone.

5. 5
   Chichen Itza

   On to Chichen Itza, its vast pyramid, ball court and sacred well among the most famous ruins of the Americas.

6. 6
   Tulum

   And at last to Tulum, a temple city perched on cliffs above the Caribbean, the journey's end at the edge of the sea.