John Lloyd Stephens was an American explorer who wrote extensively about his travels in Europe, Asia and Central America. This book is the 1843 edition of his account of his travels through Yucatan to study Maya ruins in the region.

Stephens travelled with the architect and draughtsman Frederick Catherwood, who supplied the drawings and lithographs that illustrate the work. In 1840 and 1841, the pair had travelled to many prominent Maya sites in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize such as Copán, Palenque and Uxmal where they were able to study closely Maya ruins. This book recounts their later travels through Yucatan, where they visited such notable sites as Chichen Itza and Tulum, as well as returning to Uxmal. Stephens stated that he visited 44 sites in total. The findings made during these expeditions helped to reintroduce Maya art to the world, and to confirm that such art and architecture was the product of an advanced Mesoamerican civilisation, not made by European or Asian people in exile as had previously been surmised.