Arthur Rohn, with drawings and aerial and close photography by William Ferguson and John Royce, of the major pre-Columbian ruins of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras -- fifty-one ancient cities. Some of these are sites are shown restored.

In three thousand years between 1500 B.C. and A.D. 1500 great civilizations emerged, flourished, and then died away: The Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, and Zapotec. Includes the Aztec. The authors purport to include the most recent research and most widely accepted theoretical perspectives on Mesoamerican civilizations.

Unfortunately, they repeat the ironic accusation that the "arrogance and greed of the Aztecs made them ripe for overthrow by their Indian enemies led by Cortez and a handful of Spanish soldiers in the early 1500s". The accusation contradicts the fact that the Motecuhzoma was taken prisoner through the fraudulent claim that Cortez came as the god Quetzalcoatl, a deception thought up by La Malinche, who was fluent in Nahuatl. The authors omit the fact that Cortez himself regreted having destroyed "the most beautiful city in the world" -- using relentless canonnade and fire. The authors admit the Spaniards "dedicated themselves to the destruction of Mesoamerican civilizations because they considered it to be heathen" [12]. The priests and conquistadors systematically destroyed all the libraries, and removed the buildings stone by stone. There's the arrogance and greed.

While the Olmec is the acknowledged beginning of colored stone architecture, the authors do not seem to recognize in the wide lips, wide nose, kinky hair and helmet, the huge stone heads of African warriors.

Views of the corbeled arch, sea-going port facilities, fine humanist sculpture rivaling the finest in Asia and Greece, as well as the bar-dot numeration, calendars, glyphic writing, and elaborate clothing.

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