Enrich Your Travels with Longitude

We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.

SIGN UP FOR

Longitude News

Get our monthly e-mail update

GET A

Catalog

• DESTINATIONS
  • Polar Regions
  • North America
  • Middle America
  • South America
  • Northern Europe
  • Southern Europe
  • Mediterranean
  • Middle East
  • Africa
  • Central & East Asia
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Australia & The Pacific
• FAVORITES

MIDDLE AMERICA

Lands of the Maya: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

• E-MAIL
• PRINT

Kids

Books for

Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Item EXMYA42. Buy these 4 items as a set for $70 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

ADD SET
TO BOOKBAG

Maya Art and Architecture

by Mary Ellen Miller

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 1999
• PAPER
• 240 PAGES

An illustrated overview of the art and architecture of the Maya, making use of the latest discoveries at Tikal, Copan and Palenque to demonstrate the range of Maya artistic influence. With 200 illustrations, 50 in color, including site plans, maps, strikingly rendered reconstructions and color photographs of key temples and buildings. (MYA20, $19.95)

Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan: Volume One

by John Lloyd Stephens

• EXPLORATION
• 1969
• PAPER
• 396 PAGES

The first volume of Stephens' 1841 account, an instant bestseller and still an excellent introduction to the people, culture and archaeology of Central America. It follows Stephens through Belize and Guatemala, with several chapters on Copan. With 127 engravings by Frederick Catherwood. We also carry Volume Two. ($14.95, Item MYA05) (MYA33, $16.95)

Insight Guide Guatemala, Belize & the Yucatan

by Insight Guides

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2012
• PAPER
• 380 PAGES

This handsome guide gives a profusely illustrated overview of Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, featuring concise essays by well regarded authors on natural history, politics and culture. (CAM113, $24.99)

Central America Map

by ITMB

• 2008
• MAP

A detailed map of the Central American isthmus at a scale of 1:1,100,000. (CAM20, $12.95)

 

Also Recommended

Culture Smart! Guatemala

by Lisa Vaughn

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2008
• PAPER
• 168 PAGES

A concise and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CAM119, $9.95)

Moon Handbook Belize

by Chicki Mallan | Josh Berman

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 350 PAGES

With a chapter on Tikal, photographs, sketch maps, and good recommendations on where to go and what to do by ex-resident Berman. (BLZ05, $17.99)

The Guatemala Reader

by Greg Grandin

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2011
• PAPER
• 648 PAGES

A lively, literate sourcebook on the politics, economy and society of Guatemala, aimed at students, travelers and scholars. (GML18, $29.95)

Breaking the Maya Code

by Michael Coe

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 304 PAGES

Mayan hieroglyphs were a linguistic puzzle until the 1952 breakthrough translation of a Mayan bark-paper text, as Coe explains in this history. The book also includes an extensive discussion of Maya studies and political activism in the wake of the linguistic discovery. (MYA30, $19.95)

Reading the Maya Glyphs

by Mark Van Stone | Michael Coe

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 2005
• PAPER
• 160 PAGES

This compact, illustrated guide to commonly encountered Maya hieroglyphs provides an excellent introduction to Maya writing for the traveler. We also carry Coe's classic text The Maya. ($24.95, Item MYA10) (MYA26, $19.95)

The Code of Kings, The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs

by Linda Schele | Peter Mathews

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 1999
• PAPER
• 432 PAGES

A vivid guided tour of seven Maya sites, including Palenque, Tikal and Chichen Itza. This outstanding book features photos and line drawings throughout, and introductory chapters with a succinct introduction to Maya history and culture. (MYA13, $22.00)

The Copan Sculpture Museum, Ancient Maya Artistry in Stucco and Stone

by Barbara W. Fash

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 207 PAGES

Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program & Mesoamerican Laboratory at the Peabody Museum, Fash brings insight and an on-the-ground perceptive to this illustrated overview of Copan, both a museum catalog and an introduction to the Maya. (MYA81, $35.00)

The Maya

by Michael Coe

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 280 PAGES

The eighth edition of Coe's clear, concise and authoritative, illustrated survey of the Maya. (MYA10, $26.95)

Guatemalan Journey

by Stephen Connely Benz

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 1996
• PAPER
• 212 PAGES

Opening with a long chapter on life in Guatemala City, Benz's memoir moves on to the remote highlands and other little-visited regions. An excellent account of Guatemala's political history, traditions, and indigenous cultures. (GML03, $19.95)

How to Cook a Tapir

by Joan Fry

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2012
• PAPER
• 296 PAGES

The adventurous Joan Fry, a young newlywed, accompanied her anthropologist husband to the back of beyond in what was then called British Honduras, now Belize. Fry weaves heartfelt stories of her time in the jungle with affectionate portraits of the people, her own coming of age -- and, yes, recipes: rice and beans, pumpkin soup, gumbo and, as promised, tapir. (BLZ22, $16.95)

Life in the Treetops, Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology

by Margaret Lowman

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2000
• PAPER
• 219 PAGES

The sprightly memoir of an ecologist who climbs, studies and sleeps in trees for a living, balancing multiple roles of scientist, wife and mom. Margaret Lowman, a pioneer in the ecology of forest tree canopies, continues her story in a second memoir (written with her now-grown sons). (AMZ57, $13.95)

Time Among the Maya, Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico

by Ronald Wright

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2000
• PAPER
• 464 PAGES

Wright combines journalism, archaeology and an ear for dialogue in this engaging account of travels among the contemporary Maya. (CAM84, $16.00)

Popol Vuh, The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life

by Dennis Tedlock

• LITERATURE
• 1996
• PAPER
• 388 PAGES

The definitive, unabridged collection of creation myths and stories of the Quiche people, fundamental to understanding the worldview of the highland Maya. (MYA14, $16.99)

The Festival of San Joaquin

by Zee Edgell

• LITERATURE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 187 PAGES

Set among the mestizo of rural Belize, this novel by Belize's first writer to gain international attention, gives a moving portrait of peasant life. (BLZ25, $12.00)

The Mosquito Coast

by Paul Theroux

• LITERATURE
• 2006
• PAPER
• 384 PAGES

This taut psychological novel about a man who abandons civilization for the wilds of Honduras is both an adventure story and a dark utopian tale of colonial ambitions run amok. (CAM34, $14.95)

Birds of Tropical America

by Steven Hilty

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2005
• PAPER
• 312 PAGES

Hilty serves up essays on how to find and better appreciate the dizzying variety of birds, their habits and habitats, diversity and distribution. (CAM39, $25.00)

Jaguar, One Man's Struggle to Establish the World's First Jaguar Preserve

by Alan Rabinowitz

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2000
• PAPER
• 378 PAGES

In this vivid portrait of conservation in Central America, Rabinowitz weaves personal tales of his own research and adventures with a chronicle of his successful efforts to establish a jaguar reserve in Belize. (BLZ11, $40.00)

Jungle of the Maya

by Douglas Goodell | Jerry Barrack | Jim Wright | Archie Carr

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2006
• HARD COVER
• 152 PAGES

A handsome survey of the wildlife and habitats of the Selva Maya, the tropical forest that spreads through Belize, Guatemala and the Yucatan. (MYA51, $34.95)

Tropical Nature

by Adrian Forsyth | Ken Miyata

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 1984
• PAPER
• 248 PAGES
• FAVORITE

A lucid portrait of the tropics as seen by two uncommonly observant and thoughtful field biologists. Its 17 marvelous essays introduce the habitats, ecology, plants and animals of the Central and South American rainforest. (GPS13, $16.00)

Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya, A Guide

by Victoria Schlesinger

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 400 PAGES

A comprehensive guide to the natural and cultural history of 100 plants and animals of the Maya world, primarily those from the lowland tropical forest of Central America but also including savanna, mangrove and coral reef habitats. (MYA29, $29.95)

Belize Field Guide

by Mark Wainwright

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2011
• PLASTIC CARD
• 14 PAGES

Mammals, amphibians, and reptiles are all included in this fold-up pocket field guide. (BLZ26, $7.95)

Belize Marine Life

by Rainforest Publications

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2011
• PLASTIC CARD
• 14 PAGES

Reef and sport fish, marine mammals and turtles are all illustrated in this fold-up pocket field guide. (BLZ28, $7.95)

Belize, Travellers' Wildlife Guides

by Les Beletsky

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2006
• PAPER
• 440 PAGES

An all-around field guide featuring color illustrations of 200 birds, 50 mammals, 150 coral reef creatures, and 80 reptiles and amphibians. (BLZ04, $29.95)

Birds of Belize

by H. Lee Jones | Dana Gardner

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2003
• PAPER
• 317 PAGES

A complete guide to the birds of Belize, 573 species in all, featuring 56 color plates and 234 range maps. (BLZ16, $34.95)

Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Adjacent Areas, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador

by Ernest Preston Edwards

• FIELD GUIDE
• 1998
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES
• HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

This classic guide illustrates all the regularly occurring birds of Mexico and neighboring areas, including details of distribution, abundance, habitat and identification features for 850 species. (MEX47, $22.95)

Reef Fish Identification Caribbean

by Paul Humann

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2002
• FLEXI-BOUND
• 400 PAGES

This definitive guide for underwater enthusiasts features 670 stunning color photographs of all the fishes of the tropical Atlantic. We also recommend Gulf of California (BJA39), Galapagos (DIV04) and Tropical Pacific (DIV49) in the same series, $39.95 each. (DIV03, $39.95)

Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life

by Paul Humann

• FIELD GUIDE
• 1995
• PAPER
• 80 PAGES

Humann's compact guide illustrates Caribbean fishes, corals, invertebrates and plants commonly encountered in shallower water. (DIV02, $14.95)

• JOIN OUR PARTNERS
• Why us?
• Make a Reading Guide

• ABOUT US
• The People
• The Business

• SMALL PRINT
• Customer Service
• Ordering
• Shipping

• CONNECT
• E-mail News
• Get a Catalog
• Longitude Blog
• Contact Us